SMART THINKING

Some companies are looking to the sky to cope with increasing traffic congestion.

Traffic congestion is a growing problem in the urban world. According to the TomTom Traffic Index, Mexico City, Bangkok and Jakarta have the worse congestion, with Sydney listed as number 29 and Auckland number 40 on the worldwide list. Countries are implementing numerous, varied strategies to get cars out of the city and free traffic flow.

In Luxembourg all public transport is expected to be free from March 2020 to help with the large number of cross-border commuters. Ridesharing giant Uber is currently developing shared air transportion, with plans to transport people between suburbs and cities in the sky by 2023. The company is working with partners to launch fleets of small electric VTOL (vertical take- off and landing) aircraft.

Honeywell is one company that has developed a hybrid generator that could be used in the future air taxi. Debuting at the aviation expo held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, the company is working with Pipistrel to develop avionics and flight control systems for a vertical take-off and landing air vehicle that will be capable of fully autonomous flight. Boeing is also in the race to launch an air taxi, having had the successful first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle, which completed a controlled take-off, hover and landing but did not fly forward. The autonomous air taxi runs on electricity and doesn’t require a pilot.

According to Morgan Stanley analysts the air taxi and flying car market could reach $615 billion – $2.9 trillion by 2040.