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Audi, Airbus and Italdesign are all working together on an electric "flying taxi" concept and are now starting to test the vehicle.
The concept was unveiled for the first time this year at the Geneva Auto Show.
They now have a more refined functional prototype, but it's still a 1: 4 scale model, although it flies and rolls at Amsterdam Drone Week.
It consists of an electric vehicle platform that can accommodate a passenger pod. The platform can drive on the road and park under a drone chassis, which then receives the passenger pod – becoming a passing drone.
Here are new images of the new model at scale 1: 4 presented at the Drone Week in Amsterdam:
Dr. Bernd Martens, Member of Audi's Purchasing and IT Board, and President of Audi subsidiary Italdesign, is convinced that this product will become a real product:
"Flying taxis are on the way. At Audi, we are convinced. More and more people are moving to cities. And more and more people will be mobile thanks to automation. In the future, older people, children and people without a driving license will want to use practical taxis. If we can intelligently distribute traffic between roads and airspace, citizens and cities will benefit. "
At the same time, Audi announced a partnership with Airbus to test on-demand service with helicopters in South America to better understand operations.
The company believes that the experience will be useful when deploying "flying taxis".
Here is a video of the prototype:
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