At the Geneva Motor Show, Airbus and Italdesign has unveiled something very close to those newfangled flying cars.
Airbus calls its flying car platform Pop.Up, but that quirky name belies a truly wild vision for urban transportation. Pop.Up is essentially a passenger compartment shaped like a pod that is either fixed to a completely separate, four-wheeled autonomous driving platform, or a massive drone-like quadcopter that carries it aloft. The idea being that when traffic is too bad, the self-driving pod navigates itself to a docking area where the drone automatically flies over and scoops the passenger pod right out off the ground.
Designers at Airbus and Italdesign have used two separate electric propelled motors, which is what allows it to travel on the roads and fly.
This two-seater car will be capable of vertical take-off and landing when attached to the flight propellers – making it ideal for travelling around busy cities.
It has a carbon-fibre cocoon that can be attached to either of the motors and measures 8.5ft long, 4.5ft hight and 5ft wide.
This flying car will essentially be a taxi service – the idea being to minimise the time sitting in queues of traffic and watching the metre climb.
