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Sky Taxis Just May Become A ‘Thing’ … And Soon

For those of you who hate traffic, but love getting anywhere via a taxi, we have some good news: Airbus is looking to develop its very own sky taxi!

Sounds like a crazy concept out of a science fiction movie, doesn’t it? Well, fantasy is sure to become reality very soon, as the aircraft manufacturer has a new project in the works, simply titled, CityAirbus … and the plan is to place this taxi-like plane, in the friendly skies.

The taxi plan sounds much like an Uber for the airways, where the idea is an app will be used to book the aircraft, and passengers can simply go to their local helipad, get inside with others headed to a similar destination – and get to where they have to go; traffic-free. Apparently, the rides would cost almost as much as a regular taxi would for each person.

Not only would passengers avoid traffic, and potentially help ease traffic in big cities, Airbus is stating that the trips will be faster, far more exciting than a regular taxi ride, and be maintainable.

What’s even crazier than riding an air taxi? The fact that the company is stating that, to begin with, the crafts would be run by a human pilot, but as time would pass, they would eventually transition into an autonomous craft.
Mind. Blown.

Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, chimed into this new program by stating that while he is not a big Star Wars fan, he also doesn’t think its crazy to think that one day big cities will have flying cars, travelling along roads that are in the sky. Nope, that doesn’t sound crazy at all …

Enders goes on to note, that he believes at some point in the not-too-distant future, people will be using smart phones to book flying taxis that will arrive outside their front door; ones that won’t be driven by a pilot.

MSN reports that Airbus believes the self-driving … wait, maybe should say ‘self-flying’ part might be the hardest element of this entire taxi-plane concept. While The company goes on to state there are a variety of questions that need answers, they also noted that they are relying on the entire Airbus Group when it comes to unanswered variables around this program. They will definitely need to iron out some logistics.

Still, the company does not yet have a timeline for this project, however it is gearing up for an initial test run of Project Vahana (an autonomous, electric helicopter set to help clients for personal trips and hauling cargo), set to run later on in 2017.

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