Thursday, May 11, 2023

Flying Cars (eVTOLs) - Are we there yet?

 Well, while I certainly imagined about autonomous cards since my 5th grade, I have to admit, I did not imagine (at least my gold fish memory doesnt recall it) flying cars in our future!!

Well, I first came across them through my work, as a strategic futurist, where we looking at future technologies and how things would change and how certain TV shows predicted the future much better...

It seems Simpsons get the credit for most of the futuristic inventions in TV show, and of course there are some movies, but again, I have to admit, whilst I did watch a few episodes of The Simpsons, now and then, it wasn't a show I grew up with...So imagine my amusement when I first learned about eVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircrafts) about 3 years back! They definitely seemed light years away..and then..

  • We came across a signal, Hyundai was building an airport in UK for its eVTOL!!! - eVTOL Airport Hyundai
  • And then got to know about Joby Aviation, and not just that, but also that they are listed on the Stock Exchange in US and that Uber sold its flying taxi business Elevate to them? huh!!!
  • And then more recently, when I attended Future of Everything Festival in NYC, hosted by WSJ, there were mentions of eVTOLs by Ford's CEO Jim Farley, predicting eVTOLs will be visible by 2025 and then FAA's acting administrator Billy Nolan, sealed the deal, when he announced, Yes, they are working on blueprint for regulations of eVTOLs in the US and they plan to have it ready by mid-year 2024, meaning, some test runs could happen as early as end of 2024 and we could see some commercial pilots in cities like NYC, LA, DFW by 2025?? Wow!!
And if you have the curiosity bug like me and are curious on how eVTOLs differ from helicopters, here is a nice article to understand the difference!!

Well, cheers to flying cars..see you soon..





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