Flying Cars Are Coming But Our Cities Aren’t Ready

at last flying taxis have arrived and they're set to transform the way we travel [Music] or at least that's what we're being told to think we've seen countless articles saying that it won't be long before we're all whizzing around in these oversized drones and that we should all be buzzing with excitement but before you all start thinking this video is doing the exact same thing we're actually here with a reality check yes there have been some incredible breakthroughs with the technology recently and several companies have come up with their own amazing aircraft which do work but of all the challenges yet to be tackled before these become a common sight in our skies there's one that stands out above the rest where are they gonna take off and land if we don't have the infrastructure in place then it's quite simple really this whole idea will never get off the ground [Music] before we properly investigate where we are with this infrastructure let's take a step back first of all what exactly are these vehicles you might have heard them described as flying cars or air taxis but the proper super nerdy term for them is evie tolls which stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing there are loads of shapes and sizes and they all come under a new category of transport known as urban air mobility these aren't just fancy helicopters they're much quieter than your average chopper multiple rotors make them more maneuverable and safer and because they're electrified they're cleaner and cheaper to run too it all sounds great but what about background infrastructure what will be the equivalent of an airport or metro station well there is one short-term solution that brings to mind because of the similarities with helicopters what's wrong with just using helipads it's an idea that makes sense to begin with and some vehicle makers do plan to use them but it won't be enough if this is to become a mode of transport for the masses helipads aren't exactly everywhere there's nowhere to charge the aircraft and at the moment they're only available to those who can afford them and that's what helicopters have done for decades serving just a few uh who can pay for that service urban air mobility has a totally different purpose it's a purpose of serving everybody flea paveron is ceo and founder of urban air mobility company varon vehicles he thinks helipads aren't really a long-term fix the platforms are different the the inside the housing and what happens inside the vertical has a completely different purpose and the type of customers that we're serving are different now before we come on to these verti ports are there any other kinds of existing infrastructure that could work for air taxis [Music] well another quick win could be to integrate airports into the system particularly those that are underused one of the leaders in urban air mobility wisc published a whole white paper on this in september 2021 it says there are over 5 000 public airports in the us located on average 20 minutes by car from anywhere in the country the land's already used for aviation and there's existing infrastructure for passenger services as well as air traffic control and flight paths but not every country has an airport network like the us and while this sounds like a good next step when you've just got off a flight what if you want to then head to the city centre where do you land at the other end if you can't use helipads parking real estate firm reef technology has teamed up with two air taxi developers to turn some of its garage rooftops into landing sites starting in la and miami parking lots seem like an obvious example because they're you know they're large have a big roof if you can release some of that parking capacity from the rooftop to uh to land vetoes that's great ricky sandu is the boss of urban airport which has developed its own idea for flying taxi and drone infrastructure we're going to come on to that in a minute but you also have to consider does that parking lot have the structural integrity to receive these vehicles does that parking lot have the right access for people to get up and down does it have enough lifts and stairs does that parking lot have enough energy connectivity and the capacity to provide the electric charging that these vehicles will need what we're really going to need then is purpose-built facilities designed solely for these aircraft rather than just building onto what's already there so what might these look like in 2019 a proof of concept for the world's first passenger vertiport was unveiled in marina bay singapore the vollo port will provide charging facilities cater for a range of vehicle and passenger types and its modular design means it could be adapted for different sites a collaboration between skyports and german air taxi firm volocopter the aim is to have a network across the city-state services could start running as soon as 2023 although this is likely to be just one verdi port for tourism purposes with a proper network in place by 2026 then there's urban airport which is developing these modular hubs for air taxis and cargo drones designed to integrate with other ground infrastructure on land and water we're approaching the infrastructure challenge with a very compact deployable solution that can be used in new areas that would never ever have been thought of being possible to use but also can be added to existing infrastructure in a sustainable way they're ready to set up and move and can be used in remote locations and even disaster zones which could become more common in future because of climate change thought from the kids of parts means we can actually start to kind of serve that demand and solve some of those problems that we see are going to be coming the first one will be unveiled in coventry in the uk in 2022 it also has a partnership with hyundai on the vehicle side and plans to build hundreds of sites over the next five years [Music] varon vehicles has chosen latin america and colombia in particular to launch its new urban mobility system in conjunction with the local civil aviation authority why did varan choose to begin here and why would a developing nation like this want to get involved they have one underlying reason and it's the lack of proper mobility infrastructure government's systematic incapability to provide the proper mobility infrastructure needed for cities to grow and expand and for there to be the proper socioeconomic development by connectivity of different regions and so on and we chose to start in colombia because here that problem is much more prevalent instead of providing either the vehicles or the infrastructure like others are doing varon plans to offer a complete urban air mobility package made up of several components first one is the fleets of aircraft the second component is the aerospace architecture those those virtual lanes up in the air the low altitude skies that will connect uh our our vertical boards and that's the third component the verticals these virtual lanes would be reserved just for ev tolls so there's no need to worry about clashing with other aircraft each route would be carefully defined sticking to low altitudes and avoiding no-fly zones critical infrastructure or places with difficult wind conditions or terrain but the big question is when will we actually see evie's holes in widespread use across our cities ricky predicts they will become more noticeable over the next few years but it could be a while before we see proper passenger services because vehicle companies are yet to achieve the right certification i believe by 2025 we'll be a lot more familiar with seeing air taxis and details in our skies whether it's from the continued demonstrations or piloted tests and demos to actual you know real services with cargo drones bringing your packages to a nearby location it's not going to happen overnight it's going to be a gradual thing we're going to see local operations first very confined short distance you know like low range type of operations but inside an existing urban structure that's a tremendously dense environment in many ways both environmental wind related conditions and not to mention physical structures that's going to happen way way uh beyond a decade from now what the hell was that taxi cab what do you mean a taxi cab without we were flying precisely so it'll be a while before our cities are swarming with their taxis and there are no guarantees that it's going to happen on the scale many of us imagine but we are getting closer with the infrastructure now finally catching up with the vehicles themselves maybe it's time to get excited about this new form of mobility while also keeping our feet firmly on the ground for now if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you subscribe to tomorrow's build [Music] you

Channel: Tomorrow's Build

Views: 87,455

Keywords: construction, architecture, engineering, Tomorrow's Build, tomorrowsbuild, TomorrowsBuild, tomorrows build, B1M, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, future, flying taxis, air taxis, evtols, electric vehicles, urban air mobility, lilium, joby aviation, archer aviation, volocopter, urban-air port, varon vehicles, wisk, singapore, los angeles, miami, transport, infrastructure, drones, flying cars, ricky sandhu, felipe varon, colombia, coventry, back to the future, blade runner, the fifth element

Id: UPGqUza0H58

Length: 9min 15sec (555 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Dhaerrow]

I have a PPL and fly for fun.

When I first started, the head of the FBO at the airport I fly out of told me that it would take about 30 days for me to realize that about half of the people that had private licenses shouldn't be allowed to fly because they were so dangerous.

They were correct.

I hope the restrictions around "flying cars" are enough to dissuade most people from attempting it.

[u/Sir_twitch]

Flying taxis are so fetch; as in: never gonna happen.

[u/dudeiskate]

Who's the maker? I hope these are designed by a company like Lockheed Martin and not an inexcusabley shitty car company like Chrysler or Ford or something. I can totally see a plane falling out of the sky because of major leaks or blown fuses.

[u/FuturologyBot]

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Kahing:

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Statement - A fascinating look into what is potentially a key mode of transport for the future. Work is being done on creating a taxi service with small propeller-driven aircraft. New small electric-powered helicopters have been built as prototypes. They're quieter than typical helicopters as well as cheaper and pollute less. As explained in the video, so far the main challenge is the lack of purpose-built infrastructure for such services. There are proposals to use helipads or integrate them into airports, but this isn't really useful for something meant to get you around the city, so they will require their own infrastructure built across any city they operate in.

Although we are still some time away from this becoming standard, projects to build such infrastructure are in the pipeline, so while we won't see this adopted en masse right away, this is a feasible mode of transport for the future and we may see the first such service go public in this decade. Within twenty years we could reasonably see flying taxis as being standard for any major city.

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Please reply to OP's comment here: /r/Futurology/comments/r1er0b/the_future_of_flying_taxis/hly4c01/