In this day and age, when drones are practically a household staple and the current buzzword in tech, there are rarely any big inventions that can leave us impressed. One of those inventions was presented in this years Geneva Motor Show. Renowned French civil plane manufacturer Airbus presented their new concept of a personal transport aerial vehicle called Pop.Up. The Airbus Pop.Up is an electric vehicle which can travel on both land as a normal road vehicle and in the air as an autonomous drone.
With Pop.Up the passengers would control their vehicle from an app on their smart device, which would be synced in with the tech that is in the vehicle. A big display in the car would provide all the necessary information and here will all the main interaction take hold.
Looking at this idea from a practical perspective, there are a few big logistical problems that have to be solved before this can happen. First, the city planning, and the urban design of cities doesn’t currently provide the best infrastructure to support this project, so extensive and long term work would be required to adapt the infrastructure and provide the necessity technology and environment for these future cars.
The artificial intelligence that manages these complex maneuvers still needs a lot of proofing, as there are twice as much as work for the modules- a four wheeled module is designed for the ground, and a one rotor module is designed for the air travel.
Being only a concept as of yet, the Pop.Up is already turning heads. From a positive side, this flying car from the future will dramatically lighten traffic congestion and make transportation a more enjoyable experience for everyone. As a highly ambitious project that relies on the sole concept of handing over control to a robot, and the capabilities of this car to handle road and air traffic combined. We’re not sure if this Airbus project will be the breakthrough that awaits in the near future, or a failure which has way too many drawbacks than benefits.
Either way, Airbus is to be applauded for this project, as they are sticking to their ambitions and pushing the boundaries of innovation to the very limit.
Various companies have presented their versions of this idea, but Airbus seems to be one the forefront of this new and exciting technology. The French company is working on this project with a number of big names from the automotive industry, and they say this is just the first of their many projects.
This invention may seem pretty unrealistic and too futuristic, but Mathias Thomsen, GM for Urban Air Mobility at Airbus says that this concept of transportation will become a reality in the next five to ten years and is set to change the way at which we look at transportation. The future is closer than we think, with the age of connectivity taking its full range, the most exciting things are yet to come.
