Volkswagen's sports car maker Porsche could develop a flying passenger vehicle to compete with rivals in a possible market for urban air taxis and ride-sharing services, Porsche sales chief Detlev von Platen told a German magazine.
"That would really make sense. If I drive from (the Porsche plant in) Zuffenhausen to Stuttgart airport, I need at least half an hour, if I'm lucky. Flying would take only three-and-a-half minutes," Automobilwoche quoted von Platen as saying.
Porsche would join a raft of companies working on designs for flying cars in anticipation of a shift in the transport market away from conventional cars to self-driving vehicles shared via ride-hailing apps.
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Volkswagen's auto designer Italdesign and Airbus at last year's Geneva auto show presented a two-seater flying car, called Pop.Up, designed to avoid gridlock on city roads.
The magazine said that under Porsche's plans, passengers would be able to have some control over the flying vehicle themselves but would not need a pilot license because many of the car's functions would be automated.
Potential competitors to a flying vehicle made by Porsche would be German start-ups Volocopter, backed by Daimler, Lilium Jet and eVolo, as well as US-based Terrafugia and California-based Joby Aviation.
Porsche Wants To Make Flying Cars A Reality
The auto industry is evolving and technology is forever growing,
expanding and making our lives easier. And the auto industry has noticed
and is using that to their advantage.
Major technology companies
and automakers have spent time working on creating their own version of
a self-driving system using autonomous technology. And this has given
automakers and these same technology companies other ideas.
Porsche, long known for creating luxury sports cars, has announced that they want to make flying cars a reality.
Porsche
wants to create flying passenger vehicles, which will run almost
entirely autonomously and the passengers will not need a pilot’s license
because of this.
This will obviously raise concerns from the
public but as far as the autonomous technology has gotten us in our
vehicles, many companies believe they can do the same thing in the air,
where there is zero traffic or pedestrians walking around.
While
the idea is outlandish, it actually makes sense. Most places in the city
or outside of it will take nearly a half hour alone to reach them,
while a flying car would take only a few short minutes. It could further
revolutionize travelling, much like self-driving cars will do.
People
love technology because it makes our lives easier and more enjoyable,
just as self-driving cars will and a potential self-flying passenger
car.
A driverless future will keep the roads nearly 95% safer by
getting rid of the distracted driver, it will also give us more
entertainment options during our rides and make finding the cheapest car insurance easier than ever.
Whose to say that a future with self-flying cars won’t do the same?
That is what Porsche and a few other select companies want to find out.
