Airbus, in collaboration with Italian design firm Italdesign, impressed several visitors last March at Geneva Motor Show by presenting a prototype of flying car drone.
The idea is actually to bring to life a concept that is smart, autonomous, multimodal and modular to be able to respond smoothly to the various possible situations that arise while commuting.
This is how Pop.Up was created, a vehicle that claims to be completely electric and that could relief the cities of traffic congestion, thanks to its revolutionary concept. The prototype is composed of three distinct parts:
• A carbon fibre capsule
• A ground module
• An air module
A user commuting from home to work would simply have to select its destination with an app and take place in the capsule to start the journey on the suggested route. The capsule is then attached to the ground module to become an autonomous car. If it reaches an area with dense traffic, the air module comes to retrieve the capsule and takes it off the grid to complete the journey! There are many applications for this type of transportation, but it would also be necessary to develop the necessary infrastructure, in particular the installation of charging stations.
The prototype is somehow based on a technology that is not yet available, but Airbus still believes to be able to present a prototype that can fly in a few years!
Obviously, before this kind of vehicle is deployed on a large scale, it would take a lot of work on airspace certifications and laws regulating drones and autonomous cars.
Our cities cannot grow in the future by simply focusing around the use of cars without having heavy consequences on the grid. This prototype surely brings everyone the open their mind about other possible paths for the future of transportation.
