Flying cars: The Next Big Thing Is on Its Way Say

The utopia of the flying cars in the movie of the late 1980s ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘The Blade Runner’ had now become real. Get rid of traffic congestion, save your precious time, and enjoy your vacations for long hours instead of spending hours on roads.

But, the name Flying car is a little bit misleading. It is a large drone propelled with motors that carry people. These can be called Vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. These vehicles don’t need any runway, all they need is just a vertiport.

How do they work?

Several motors are installed, of which some are pivotable and some are fixed. During takeoff, the pivotable motors will be parallel to the ground which gives enough thrust to the vehicle for the lift. Then, they become perpendicular to the ground and moves forward. These motors can be replaced with anything(Jet engines) which gives enough thrust for lift.

Electric, Electric, Electric

But Why the world is looking at Electric Technology in transportation? This is primarily because electric propulsion is simpler, more reliable, and more precisely controllable than combustion engines.

The Electrically associated vehicles will have lesser moving parts when compared to Internal Combustion Engines. Hence, there will be less power loss and the efficiency is more.

Traveling in the flying car will give you a beautiful picturesque view of the city and makes transportation very efficient.

The imagination of life with flying cars is very exciting, right?

The Future with eVTOLs

Ease of transportation, goodbye to traffic congestion.

Instead of getting into a car, you will be getting into a large drone parked on the take-off and landing pads, Vertiports. Traveling in places with heavy traffic will get simplified.

Emergency services like ambulance will be very efficient with the eVTOLs. Instead of getting hung up in the traffic, the patient will be moved to the hospital as early as possible.

But there will be some challenges we may have to face.

The Noise

The noise due to these vehicles is high. Despite, its limited flying range, they can’t go higher altitudes like airplanes. So they will travel at lower altitudes. But, who would feel happy, living in the surroundings with the heavy booming sound over the roof of buildings?

NO! right?

Anyway, the sound of the eVTOLs will be less when compared to the helicopter’s sound. This sound will be reduced with the modifications of blade designs.

2. The Richman’s Plaything

This service may become a premium service for the wealthier people due to its cost. The companies have to scale up the production to reduce the cost before it becomes something seen as Richman’s plaything.

3. Battery Density

The power required to run the vehicles on the roads will be less while the power required to lift the heavy vehicles along with passengers will be very high. So the battery density should be high. Present we don’t have such batteries that reach the target. This is yet to be developed.

The Race for eVTOLs

The Glimpse of Flight Test and the Car

SkyDrive a Japanese startup had conducted a flight test in August with its car SD-03, manned with the pilot, circled about 4 minutes at Toyota Test Field.

It was the first public demonstration of Flying cars and also it is the world’s smallest EVTOL( Electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicle. The car is installed with 8 motors. It is the smallest EVTOL that it just occupies the parking space of a car.

Volocopter a German company backed by a Chinese car company Geely. The prototype has 18 BLDC motors with nine Lithium-ion battery packs. And it is installed with the Quick swapping system. It takes 5min to Exchange the rechargeable batteries. The commercial lunch may be expected from 2022- 2023.

EHang a Chinese company. It is installed with 16 motors and comes with an autonomous pilot. This company is focusing more on safety, it monitors each airborne device, and sends feedback to the control system, select a good path.

Lilium a german startup with a large company share of Chinese Conglomerate Tencent. The vehicle is powered by the Vectored thrust with 36 pivotable jet engines. It will be in the market by 2025.

Joby Aviation a California based startup backed by Toyota and Intel. This is powered by a vectored thrust with six pivotable propellers. Expected to be in service by 2023.

Wisk Cora a joint venture(Boeing and Silicon Valley-based startup) backed by Google’s co-founder Larry Page. It is powered with 12 independent motors and also comes with an autonomous pilot system. It more inclined to safety, in case if there is a failure of motors it can land with the parachute equipped.

Vertical Aerospace a Bristol-based startup. It is powered with 8 motors and the manual piloting system, capable of carrying 5 people. It is expected to start commercial flights in 2024.

The Korean carmaker Hyundai is joined with UBER Air taxi service, developing eVTOLs. It is focusing on safety, minimizing noise, and energy efficiency. Uber is planning to commence the commercial service of the first network in 2023.

Airbus a European company. It comes with 8 motors, ducted high lift propulsion units, and with an autonomous pilot system.

Some companies are trying out Hydrogen as a fuel(which is eco-friendly) instead of using Electric motors. Vehicles with hydrogen as working fuel will have high lifting capacity when compared to Electric motors.

Final Thought

However, most of the companies are still in the prototype testing phase. Mostly these services will come into account by the end of the decade.

The companies have to work on the sustainability of this technology. And also they need to show people the benefits of a faster, more predictable, and safe form of transport that has little or no impact on the lives of people on the ground.

OK! With this technology, we may have lots of benefits like ease of transportation, get rid of traffic congestion, and many others, but people aren’t thinking about the consequences. Even though there will not be any air pollution, but the Ecosystem of birds will be disturbed. Already with the high-frequency broadband services, many birds are being endangered.

Let’s hope for a bright and safe future.