The flying taxi could be launched by the end of 2017, according to Playtech and Dailymail. The company Airbus is interested in the field of autonomous flying cars, and they want to test a flying taxi for just one passenger by the end of this year.
Flight through a simple push of a button
The company is already imagining the world where a vehicle can take off with a simple push of a button to escape the traffic jam.
The plans also include a phone application for people who are interested can in scheduling such a flight.
Tom Enders, the CEO of the company Airbus said that they are experimenting and they are taking this project seriously. Enders also mentioned that a century ago, the urban transport went underground, but now we also have the ability to go above the ground.
Technologies friendly with the environment
Enders said that such technologies must be environmentally friendly because there is no desire to increase the level of pollution. Also thanks to the flight, the costs for the construction of a new infrastructure could be reduced.
The project - named the Vahan project - was launched in February 2016 and the design was ready by the autumn of the same year.
Government agreements needed for the flying taxi
Airbus will have to receive government agreements to launch the new vehicle. Legislators were quite conservative so far in terms of both drones and autonomous vehicles.
Enders said last year that, although he is not a Star Wars' fan, he thinks it's not a crazy idea to visualize that one day the big cities are going to have flying cars that will travel from their roads up to the sky.
Several companies are planning to build flying cars
Airbus is not the only company who wants to build flying vehicles. Other companies, such as Terrafugia, Aeromobil, and EHang have already revealed a number of prototypes of flying vehicles with autonomous functions.
Other divisions from Airbus are working on autonomous flying cars. Skyways is a delivery service using drones, which will be tested this year in Singapore. City Airbus is a concept created for autonomous helicopters that passengers can order via a Smartphone.