Autonomous e-air taxis: A future near you?

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

E-air taxis are not just improved helicopters. To understand why they have the potential to be transformative, it is useful to understand how they could compare with current helicopter-based services. In the following table we compare two stages of electric air taxi development. Early stage is defined as piloted e-air taxi services, which are likely to be the first commercial applications, and scale adoption is when autonomy is introduced, removing the need for a pilot. E-air taxis have the potential for significantly reduced noise and environmental impacts compared with traditional helicopters, and at a much lower price when autonomous.

This progression from helicopter-based services to piloted e-air taxis to autonomous e-air taxis can be seen as a model for how these on-demand services are likely to be rolled out commercially over the coming decade

How much activity is actually underway?
One way to look at this question is the amount of investment and R&D activity in the space. From April 2017 to May 2018, over $1B of private sector investment was made in the on-demand aviation ecosystem (e.g. e-air taxi ride sharing), and it appears this is continuing. As an example, Google co-founder Larry Page is backing two startups (Kitty Hawk and Opener) with over $100 million in funding. In addition to startups, traditional aviation powerhouses such as Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Bell are actively pursuing this space.

Kitty Hawk (through a subsidiary called Zephyr Airworks) received regulatory approval to test a prototype called Cora, an electric, autonomous VTOL aircraft that has small rotors on its wings. It is capable of carrying 2 passengers and has a range of 100km, can reach speeds of 150 km/h and an altitude of up to 900m. Trials started in New Zealand in 2018, and the company has said that it wants to be operating a service within 6 years. Uber has stated that it wants to be operating demonstration flights starting in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023.

There has also been growing public dialogue about the future of e-air taxi services:

“I think it will happen faster than any of us understand. Real prototype vehicles are being built right now. So the tech

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