Airbus Plans Flying Cars

Airbus Group plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car as a way of avoiding gridlock, the aerospace group’s chief executive said on January 16. Airbus last year formed a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring concepts such as a vehicle to transport individuals or a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple riders, Reuters reports. “One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich. “We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously,” he said, adding that Airbus recognized such technologies would have to be clean to avoid further polluting congested cities. Enders said Airbus, as the world’s largest maker of commercial helicopters, wanted to invest to make the most of new technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, to usher in what amounts to an era of flying cars. A spokesman for Airbus declined to say how much the company was investing in urban mobility.