

“If this becomes successful,” she said, “I think that would definitely create a different means of transportation. Professor Aksaray said humans are on the verge of a new mobility revolution, reminiscent of the ones created by the invention of the automobile and the plane. “We don’t have the mass production we would need to buy down the costs of all the development, research, deployment and manufacturing at a small scale.” Professor Atkins echoed that observation and said it’s unlikely that private citizens with a modest income would be able to afford one in the next 20 years. “With any new technology, it will be very expensive in the beginning,” Professor Aksaray said. He projected the price will decrease by 2030. It can detect other vehicles on the road while navigating Chinas. Fukuzawa said SkyDrive plans to begin selling a two-seat version of its eVTOL by 2023 for about $300,000 to $500,000. The Hover Car is a two-seater zero emissions vehicle that hovers above ground and travels along electromagnetic road networks. “These vehicles can provide transportation,” Professor Atkins said, adding that “these communities might skip right over having roads” and use the aircraft as their main form of transportation. Professor Atkins said these machines may be better suited for satellite communities of cities or countries with difficult terrain. “From a cost perspective, they won’t be practical to go to the grocery store.” “They are going to be more energy efficient than helicopters that use a lot of fuel but they will be less energy efficient than cars because they have to lift themselves,” she said. The other challenge is design: The vehicles should be powerful enough to carry any necessary weight, yet quiet enough to fly at undetermined low altitudes, she said.Įlla Atkins, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, expressed mixed views on the practicality of eVTOL machines. “They cannot wait for a pilot or an operator to say, ‘Now do this, now do that.’ We cannot wait for that kind of micromanagement of the vehicle.”

“These vehicles need to look at their environment, assess the situation and act accordingly,” she said.

Safe autonomous technology for eVTOL aircrafts is still being developed, Professor Aksaray said. The government is considering the development of control technology to manage flight operations in a unified manner.Safety is one of two challenges preventing the technology from becoming widely used, said Derya Aksaray, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota.
HOVER CAR IN JAPAN HOW TO
There will be more discussions on how to apply such safety measures to flying cars.Ī mechanism to avoid collisions with other flying objects such as helicopters and drones is also essential. Presently, this means 300m above the highest buildings in urban areas and 150m above water.įlying car manufacturers are calling for a review of the rules to allow short flights at lower altitudes.Īircraft are required to meet strict safety standards, such as annual inspections for airworthiness that check the strength and performance of the aircraft to prevent accidents. Seeking to lead the international competition to develop flying cars, the Japanese government established a public-private council of business operators and experts in 2018 to discuss legal and technical issues.įlying cars are expected to be treated as airplanes, helicopters and other aircraft under the Civil Aeronautics Law.Īircraft are not allowed to fly below the minimum safe altitude set by ministry ordinance. There will be various challenges for flying cars to move about in a space without lanes and signals, unlike roads. Morgan Stanley of the United States estimates that the global market for flying cars will be worth about US$1.5 trillion (S$2 trillion) by 2040.
