Alright nerds. It’s
Friday, and while you’re dreaming about the impending weekend, why not also
dream about the phenomenal parts of our future?
Especially that old (new?) chestnut, flying cars. Why aren’t they already floating around in
this glorious 21st-century utopia we’ve created for ourselves? Well, glorious 21st-century utopia
or no, the flying cars could be swooping in for testing as early as next year.
 |
| It is time. (Image courtesy darkroastedblend.com.) |
According to thenextweb.com, the Airbus company wants
autonomous flying taxi prototypes to hit the skies sometime in late 2017. The company is the second largest aerospace
firm in the United States (behind Boeing) and thus has the clout (and cash) to
make this a reality.
The sky-taxis, which we still haven’t figured out a cute
portmanteau title for, would be flown autonomously. Prospective passengers would book a seat on a
zenHop “City Airbus” drone, then would be ferried to a zenHub helipad. The sky-taxi would then airlift them (and
other passengers headed in the same direction, to save costs) to their
destination. It’s thought that the
cost-sharing system could keep the price of these trips around the same price
as a conventional taxi.
 |
| We have a lot of bodies. Why fight them as traffic, when you can float above the fray? (Image courtesy airbusgroup.com.) |
Luggage would be ferried in a traditional manner on the
ground (since, you know, hefting weight into the air isn’t easy, and you pack
too many socks) via a parallel service called zenLuggage. All of this would be monitored by security
systems experts at zenCyber, to keep your flight on track and never hacked.
 |
| Artist's rendition of the Airbus sky taxi. The only bad thing is you can't hail them via whistling. (Image courtesy airbusgroup.com.) |
Airbus has reportedly been working on the electric aircraft’s
design for two years, styling the sky-taxis after large drones. They claim it “could soon become reality
without having to wait for too many regulatory changes.”
Up, up, and away!
 |
| What's a mere 60 years' wait for fantastic futurism? (Image courtesy pinterest.com.) |
No comments:
Post a Comment