Airbus Chief says ‘flying car’ could be ready for testing by the end of the year

Airbus CEO Tom Enders has said the planemaker plans to test a prototype self-piloted flying car by the end of the year.

As rush-hour traffic in urban areas becomes unbearable for many commuters, road traffic congestion is expected grow even greater as projections show 60% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030.

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In response to the challenges Airbus created a dedicated division called ‘Urban Air Mobility’ it was set up last year to develop concepts such as autonomous flying vehicles.

The self-piloted flying vehicle platform is likely to begin test flights by the end of the year said Mr Tom Enders.

The helicopter-style vehicle will be able to carry multiple riders and the aim would be for people to book the vehicle using an UBER type app or car-sharing schemes.

The Airbus CEO at the DLD digital tech conference in Munich today.

The Airbus CEO told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich:

“One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,”

“90 percent of the mistakes in flight accidents were caused by human error,technically autonomous flying is easier to implement than automated driving”

Many of the technologies needed for the ‘flying car’ such as batteries, motors and avionics are most of the way there Airbus revealed last year.

“We are in an experimentation phase, we are taking this development very seriously,” said Mr Enders.

“However, people must be shown that flying without pilots is even safer, when we talk about new mobility in the air, it must be clean,” he said.

He said using the skies could also reduce costs for city infrastructure planners. “With flying, you don’t need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads,” he said.

Officially underway since February 2016, the project’s team of internal and external developers and partners have designed the vehicle, building and testing its subsystems are underway.