Aerial Taxi is closer than you think

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An American startup based in California has been working on aerial transportation of people for almost a decade. A decade of work is finally starting to give hope for a service launch in the near future. Especially as more and more information about the project’s development has been coming to light in recent months and tests.
Joby has been working for years to develop its own production of lightweight electric aircraft that could serve as air cabs. The vehicles would be fast, quiet, and able to carry at least a few people. Although development is still ongoing, at this point it can be admitted that many of the goals have been met. The planes are able to take off horizontally, thus eliminating the need for runways, can carry a pilot and four passengers, and have a top speed of over 320 kilometers per hour.
According to the organization’s calculations, air travel can prove to be up to an hour faster than ground transportation when driving through urban traffic jams. As demo inventors provide a simulation of driving thru New York City by car and flying over it in their proposition.
In addition to the machines themselves, the challenge for the project is to obtain permits to fly in urban areas and to reach customers. With help come companies that have the resources and know-how. Because of that, the recently established partnership with Japanese airlines and Korean SK Telecom gives hope that entering the Asian markets within the next few years is reasonable and at least remotely possible.
By partnering with Uber, the company hopes to make ordering its services as easy as regular cab and take advantage of the already existing huge base of customers.
Although the idea seems genuinely futuristic we have to remember that the future is now and the development of new technology is quicker than ever. Especially when it comes to solutions to improve our everyday life.

3 thoughts on “Aerial Taxi is closer than you think

  1. Beregovskykh Artem says:

    Finally no more problems for the road traffic, wait… Can we encounter an aerial traffic congestion in the future??

  2. 45234-EX says:

    It’ll be interesting to see how this whole idea takes-off, especially in highly populated areas when it is available to use by the masses

  3. 47530 says:

    This is pretty much an oversimplification to think that the fact that technology is capable of making light planes that fly low but travel faster than cars will quickly change the whole transportation network and will make our urban lives easier. No, it is not. Considering the population densities in some cities, the presence of skyscrapers, the number of people traveling on daily basis to work and home, the potential noise pollution hazard, and so on and so forth. The fact is that if there will be many such planes then they would have to be somehow regulated in the air. What about parking places with these planes being larger than an average vehicle. I cannot deny the fact that it is unusual and might seem useful to overcome traffic, but only under circumstances that it would be available to a narrow range of people with a large investment in the network. I think we will either never see an urban transition to flying transport or it will definitely not happen while I am alive 😀

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