1 step closer to futuristic living after FAA gives go-ahead for flying car

we may be one step closer to Living Like The Jetsons as the FAA gives a go-ahead for a flying car to begin test flights alif Eric Aeronautics is aiming to deliver its 300 thousand dollar electric model A to customers by late 2025. flying cars have long been a fixation of Science Fiction from The Jetsons to Blade Runner and Back to the Future so could the fantasy really become a reality well let's take this to our group chat ABC News Transportation producer Sam Sweeney joins me now along with business reporter Alexis christopherus and ABC News contributor Google tech policy fellow Mike Muse for more so Mike let's start with just the basic what makes a flying car a flying car and how do these prototypes actually work so they have eight propellers four on each side what makes this one so unique is that it has a vertical elevation and so it can lift off by literally just sitting in a space lift off vertically like a helicopter like a helicopter and also too it has Forward Motion what makes this one so unique too as well is that it can actually be driven on the ground as well where other flying cars who have submitted applications for the FAA can only fly but this one can do both ground and in the air and it can also park there are also two looking at doing autonomous driving too as well with this first smaller vehicle the first vehicle is only going to sit two passengers they are looking to expand down the road with possibly happening up to four passengers currently right now the car only can go 25 miles per hour in the air with a distance of 200 total but with 100 that being in the air so a fascinating technological feat I must say and I imagine super easy parallel parking because you just drop right in yes no more three-point parking space Alexa is the company is already offering a pre-sale of this flying car so how real is this projection of them saying they want to deliver this by late 2020. it's not that far away yo did you see that video I'm not ready for that to have all that overhead um this went on pre-order about two years ago they already have 400 orders this is not cheap this is a three hundred thousand dollar car at the moment in order to reserve one you only had to put down 150 bucks but it was refundable so I think a lot of people probably like the idea jumped on the bandwagon but as we move closer and it gets more real uh they will probably pull out but I don't want us to get too excited we're not going to have you know tons of cars up in the air in 2025 this is still uh in test mode and also as you said Mike it can also go on the road the highway traffic safety administration still needs to sign off on it which they haven't done yet well so let's go to that point Sam the FAA has some serious restrictions on air travel so how will that work in a world with flying cars this is just one step in a very long process to get this thing certified uh there there are many restrictions in place right now this certification allows the company to continue with limited research to fly it uh around the airport where they are working um to do test flights to make this come to life but we are still very far off 2025 uh seems like it's close and those may be the goals of this company um but that seems like a stretch to a lot of experts I've talked with this is going to have to go through multiple rounds of testing safety testing and then we have to talk about the infrastructure can you just take off in your you know your local cul-de-sac at the end of your street fly over a bunch of houses and then land at work we're going to have to come up with vertaports so if this thing really does work and they are able to figure out all of the logistical challenges the battery life the safety aspects of this would you take off have to drive it to a local parking lot and then go to the top floor and take off from there and then fly to another parking lot or will you be able to say is Alexa said you know land in your driveway those are things that all have to be worked out there are a number of different companies that are working on variations of this sort we're talking about evitols which are electric vertical and takeoff Robo taxis if you will United Airlines and Delta have said that they would like to to have those to bring people from far out suburbs into airports like Chicago O'Hare or Atlantis Hartsfield airport but you'd have to go to certain locations and they have been working on those for years as well they're still working out the Kinks to try to make this come to fruition verteb ports I learned a new word today disruptive could this be to the way we live now I think it could be very disruptive but in a good way I know when this first got announced but the idea of a flying car I used to be very apprehensive to that and so I started Living in New York and experiencing traffic gridlock and then I'm like I wouldn't mind a flying car so now I'm all for it and I hope his regulation moves quickly does not like being stuck in traffic in New York city so this would be very disruptive one uh particularly to autonomous driving movement that is happening right now I think what Tesla is trying to do when other cars are trying to do I think it's also two going to be disruptive uh but uh to the air space Transportation the airline industry which I'm really glad Sam pointed that out but these Airlines recognize that and they're trying to enter into the race particularly as we see airports in the regional areas are starting to close because not enough routes are getting there so this could be very beneficial for individuals who live in a rural areas or they have recent airports that are closing to be able to use this flying Airline taxi service to get them to a major Hub and connecting and so I think it could be disruptive both to the airline industry also true to the car industry that is looking to do autonomous driving so Sam where does this telling you stand and what are the next steps here there's going to be a long list of steps first is safety the FDA has to prove that this vehicle is safe that it's safe for the traveling public and it can go mainstream then you've got to come up with that infrastructure as I was talking about and also flight paths you know our airspace is already congested there's going to be certain places where you can fly these things where you can't fly them and they're going to have to come up with that framework this is going to take many many years all right Sam Sweeney Mike Muse Alexis Christophers thank you all hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 66,309

Keywords: ABC, ABCNL, FAA, News, car, fantasy, fiction, flying, future, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-100706060, reality, science, technology, travel

Id: ZEhJYf3Arg8

Length: 6min 16sec (376 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023