SILICON VALLEY, CALIFORNIA — Airbus has announced its development of a flying taxi which aims at solving traffic congestion worldwide.
According to the Airbus website, the electric flying vehicle — currently named the CityAirbus — would resemble a small drone in its basic design.
Test flights will be conducted in enclosed flight corridors at the National University of Singapore in mid-2017. The drones can travel to and from locations on the campus and port.
To be fully autonomous, the CityAirbus will be equipped with a machine vision system that allows it to detect obstacles.
“In a not too distant future, we’ll use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our front door — without any pilot,” Digital Trends quoted Airbus CEO Tom Enders as saying.
Airbus is targeting this product to transport service providers such as Uber. They believe sharing the cost of flying taxi by multiple customers could lower the price to nearly the same as a normal taxi ride.
The company’s innovative branch, A3, based in Silicon Valley, will be leading the project, known as Vahana.
