Boeing driverless flying car takes flight with a range of up to 50 miles
A hi-tech driverless flying car which could one day reshape our cities has completed its first test flight.
Boeing’s autonomous air vehicle completed takeoff, hover and landing in Virginia, the company said.
The electric vehicle is designed for autonomous flight with a range of up to 50 miles.
Several companies including Uber, Airbus and Intel are racing to develop small autonomous vehicles to be used like ‘flying taxis’.
Uber’s Elevate division predicts that by 2021 it will have some kind of craft in operation while others are already testing prototypes in Dubai.
BREAKING: It’s another first for us. Along with @AuroraFlightSci we’ve successfully tested our passenger air vehicle. We continue our progress towards a safe and sustainable urban mobility ecosystem. #TheFutureIsBuiltHere pic.twitter.com/hwuw4d5jmz
— The Boeing Company (@Boeing) January 23, 2019
Lilium, which was founded by executives from taxi firm Gett, Airbus and Elon Musk’s tech company Tesla, said that it was developing an electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicle capable of flying at up to 186mph, almost as fast as a Formula One car.
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Its speed means that a trip from Heathrow Airport to central London would cost £40, the same as a taxi, but would take 12 minutes instead of an hour.
Many of the flying car projects under development are funded by venture capital such as Google’s co-founder Larry Page.
Experts have predicted that the market will start to grow from 2025, with a possible valuation of up to $1 billion by 2030.
Test flights have been completed in Dubai by Chinese company eHang in China, AeroMobil in Slovakia and Kitty Hawk in the USA.
