What is better than a flying car? Well, a flying car that can operate on the ground as well as the air! Airbus showed off a concept car with modular functionality at this year’s Geneva Motor Show. The company created the design in partnership with Italdesign. While the car is far from production, it still gives us an interesting look some possible mobility solutions of the future.
Again, Airbus is focusing upon the intended use for these cars, which is as taxis. The company talked about how a whole bunch of these flying cars could form a network, allowing users to summon cars from their mobiles. Although it mentioned a smartphone app for hailing these vehivles, why stop there? Since we are talking about a concept car anyways, why not one that stops when you push out your hand — like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter.
The car is supposed to take customer preference into account while deciding upon the route — aerial or ground.
Airbus is calling this particular design as the Pop.Up System. The car is supposed to come with its on-board AI that is quite familiar with each passenger’s individual traits and uses it to determine how to make the traveling experience a pleasant one for the person sitting in the backseat.
The main body of the vehicle is pretty interesting. It resembles a passenger capsule and that, is exactly where the modular part kicks in. You can attach ground modules to it to get it roaring on the roads or, you can attach these drone-like apparatus to it to have it soaring in the skies. Indeed, Airbus even made suggestions regarding the Hyperloop.
Meanwhile, the system is probably years, if not decades, away. Even though Airbus has gotten the passenger pod as well as the ground module and the quad-copter drone air transit system all put on display at Geneva. Still there are huge difficulties that will need to be surmounted before such a system can ever take wing.
