GM Looks To The Sky, Discusses Future Flying Cars
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Numerous companies have already begun work on flying car prototypes, but General Motors discussed publicly the transportation method for the first time.
At the FT Future of the Car Summit USA in Detroit, Mike Abelson, GM’s vice president of global strategy said the automaker has been involved in discussions with some air taxi companies on flying cars. He declined to say which companies and did not expand on the topic, according to the Detroit Free Press.
He said there will one day be some sort of “air transport” that includes electrification and autonomous driving technologies, though he cautioned anything being worked on today is far, far off into the future. Flying cars also face significant regulatory hurdles.
Terrafugia flying car concept
Some companies have taken the to the segment literally, such as Terrafugia, a Chinese-owned company based in Massachusetts. Other have begun engineering vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs) that do not require a runway. Uber and Google’s Kitty Hawk are among other notable names.
A GM spokesperson declined to say if the automaker has a prototype or timeline to launch such a vehicle.
On the automobile front, Abelson said consumers should expect 20 electric cars over the next five years. However, GM’s traditional business will remain a major focus in the foreseeable future.
Not to ruin the optimism, but there are hang ups to flying cars. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has already explained to the world why flying cars may never happen, and not for reasons you think. Aside from the FAA aerospace nightmare that may transpire from the abundance of flying cars, so will noise. For those that have ever heard anything take off, or bothered to take into account how loud and how much force something needs to generate in order to create lift, a future with flying cars sounds more and more like a noise-saturated dystopia instead of a rose colored techno-paradise of tomorrow.
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I’ll settle for reliable well built normal cars that last over 100k without issues, improvements to reliability and most important better trained shop staff that can actually trouble shoot these ever more complex vehicles the first time without having to bring the vehicle in 30 times to correct a re-occurring issue. These companies are so worried about the far future and how much profits they think they are going to rake in that they are forgetting the products they are now offering as if they were an after thought. And GM’s current lineup is full of issues that one could write a book on.
This is Mary M Barra-ssing. They should focus more on getting things right today and not these far fetched way out there in the future pipe dreams that may never even come to fruition.
Smaller margin of error when flight is involved, reign in the bean counters first, no more bottom of the barrel components. Wouldn’t want the fuel pump to give up while in the air. It’s bad enough on terra firma.
this is just happy talk. the future is more down to earth according to ford.
they just paid $100M for a electric scooter start up. and they plan to invest no less than $200M. so they plan on spending $300M on electric scooters.
between this and the hipster xanadu train station, hackett is doing a great job impersonating a millennial.
Sadly, flying cars are not going to happen any time soon. There would be too many opportunities for a small-scale 9/11 to happen everywhere.
Just for the record, there are no fuel pumps on an EV – even a flying one. But more to the point, with a comment like ” there will be NO EV pickups” clearly shows that the bean counters rule and all the “green” talk is BS. Since the public clearly want multi use vehicles, electrifying trucks and suvs would make the biggest carbon reduction now. I for one would love to replace my 13 MPG Silverado with even a PHEV one, and it would more properly fill the space next to the Volt in the garage.