Tests start on Audi “flying taxi”

Tests have begun on Audi, Airbus and Italdesign’s electric “flying taxi” concept collaboration.

While it remains a scale model, the refined working prototype was flying and driving at Amsterdam Drone Week from November 26-30.

First revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March, the “flying taxi” is a flying EV platform able to accommodate a passenger pod. The platform can drive on the road and park itself under a drone frame, which then receives the passenger pod – becoming a passenger drone, Electrek

reports.

Audi sourcing and IT board member and Audi subsidiary Italdesign president Dr Bernd Martens reckons it will become a real product.

“Flying taxis are on the way,” he says. “We at Audi are convinced of that. More and more people are moving to cities. And more and more people will be mobile thanks to automation. In future senior citizens, children, and people without a driver’s licence will want to use convenient robot taxis. If we succeed in making a smart allocation of traffic between roads and airspace, people and cities can benefit in equal measure.”

In the meantime, Audi says it is partnering with Airbus to test on-demand service with helicopters in South America to better understand the operations, saying the experience will be useful when the “flying taxis” are deployed.