Driverless Cars are going to fly.

 

     Source:Deccan Chronicle

Roads !!! Where we're going we won't need roads or drivers as it turns out.

Driverless Cars ? Have you heard about them …Just kidding !!!

I know I talk a lot about them like a whole lot and I know you know how excited I am about the idea but what if we go a little extra futuristic and started talking about driverless cars that can fly huh!!! Yeah, I said it fly.

This isn't just a case of wishful thinking or at least it's not just me being wishful. Airbus group, the multinational company known for making freaking airplanes is working on an autonomous flying car they're calling it project Vahana

And more than that, they plan to have a working prototype by the end of this year. The idea of a flying car hitting the roads or rather flying over them before the end of this year boggles my mind.

There are so many challenges just to overcome. But one of the big ones is the decision to go autonomous. Flying an aircraft is no small matter, you have to be aware of way more potential hazards than you do on a terrestrial vehicle.

Not only do you need to maneuver around stuff that's in front, behind or to either side of you. You also have to worry about anything that might be below or above you, Oh and you have to do all that while keeping the aircraft nice and stable

A sophisticated autonomous system would handle all those issues on its own. One of the huge advantages technology has over a human operator is that it can accept monitor and react to data from multiple sources without becoming distracted by any one element.

So while a human driver might notice a potential problem up ahead while missing something that's coming from the side a machine to keep an eye on everything at once and calculate the best option for a response.

But how do you design a flying car to work in cities that just weren't designed to accommodate them. It's not like we have runways for cars.

Air buses solution is to go vertical the flying car will likely have multiple rotors kind of like Quadcopter, Drones you can buy and fly around.

This will allow for vertical takeoff and landing eliminating the need for a car to get up to speed in order to take off.

But why build a flying car in the first place ? Well, it's really cool. But that's hardly enough justification one actual answer is that it could help alleviate congestion in cities.

These vehicles wouldn't take up space on city streets adding to traffic problems. They could fly over landscapes that means in theory they could be more efficient instead of having to navigate lots of turns and one-way streets, a flying car could go from point A to point B in a more or less straight line.

That's the ideal though obviously any future with flying cars and it will have to include regulations that establish where and when a car might fly over parts of a city. 

Flying cars would also allow people to get around the city without putting stress on critical pieces of infrastructure such as streets and bridges that could potentially save cities millions of dollars on maintenance and repair budgets if it works fine.

Assuming the prototype works well Airbus has an ambitious plan to launch cars into the skies by 2021. The first batch of flying cars would serve as short distance urban aircraft.

In other words, you wouldn't go on a family cross-country road trip in any of these. Sorry folks ! this car won't do that. Most outside should've told you.

My guess is that these vehicles would most likely be part of a fleet of cars operated by a company rather than personal vehicles. In other words, I don't think most of us will have a flying car in the garage by the mid 2020s.

But if the plan comes together you could be hopping into a car for a quick flight to the movie theatre. How awesome would that be ?

I'm cautiously optimistic about this plan. But knowing how far away we are from true autonomy with cars that never leave the ground. I think Airbus is going to have a lot to prove before any cities approve flying taxis.

So here's my question for you guys what would it take to convince you to jump into a flying car ? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

      

Thanks for reading this article.