Is that a flying car? No, but it’s a start
Firmcompeting against Page gets patent for vehicle that can take off vertically
SANTA CRUZ — A firm competing with two startups reportedly funded by Google co-founder Larry Page to roll out the world’s first flying cars received a patent Thursday for a vehicle that could take off and land vertically from a driveway or parking lot.
The patent issued to Joby Aviation founder Joe Ben Bevirt describes an aircraft that’s piloted either by human or robot and does not require a runway.
“Just that difference points to the potential for large drones that carry people,” said Stanford robotics expert Bryant Walker Smith.
Far out? Perhaps, but the idea has merit to some.
“The need is obviously there,” said Roger Lanctot, associate director of Strategy Analytics. “The whole surfacebased transportation network is completely overwhelmed globally. There isn’t a place in
the world that isn’t completely overtaxed. The only way out is up.”
With populations moving more and more into urban areas and road infrastructure crumbling, aerial transportation options will become increasingly important in the U.S., said Cathy Roberson, head analyst at Logistics Trends & Insights. “Cities are just going to keep getting bigger and bigger, and traffic’s going to keep getting worse and worse,” Roberson said.
Flying cars appear to be a viable idea, Roberson said. “People laughed at Henry Ford when he produced the Model T ... and said it wouldn’t go, and it did,” she said. “Why not this? I could have used it the other day — I sat in traffic for two hours.”
To be sure, the awarding of the patent does not mean your next trip to Burning Man will be in a flying car. The same airspace and safety issues affecting drones in general would confront flying cars. The patent does not give a time frame for any product release.
Bevirt presented several possible designs for the vehicle, but focused on a biplane drone with four electric motors powering propellers. The patent noted that “runways may not always be available, or their use may be impractical.”
Although Bevirt did not detail how the aircraft would be used, Joby Aviation is dedicated to creating “a new generation of electric personal aircraft” that will “revolutionize how we commute,” according to company promotional material. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the patent.
Not so far from Joby’s facility north of Santa Cruz, in Hollister to the southeast, two companies reportedly funded by Page, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, are testing their own versions of flying cars. Secrecy shrouds the operations of Zee-Aero and Kitty Hawk, so the battle to put the first viable flying car in the air is occurring largely unseen.
If cars do fly, said Jeremy Carlson, a senior analyst at IHS Automotive, the likeliest market for their manufacturers would be on-demand aerial transportation services.
“If there’s one thing that we’re learning a lot more of these days it’s that mobility services can be a very big deal, and they can open up new business models, and they can open up transportation to a lot of new people. This one feels like it’s a pretty small opportunity, given the massive transportation industry we have today.”
Ride-hailing giant Uber, in fact, could become a player in flying-car services, Stanford’s Smith said. “If there’s any company that isn’t going to confine itself to the ground, I’d say it’s Uber,” Smith said.
Flying cars would probably provide a more expensive transportation option than ground travel, given costs of aircraft and liability insurance, Carlson said.
While Joby’s patent allows for versions of the aircraft with a human pilot, full autonomy would be the best system for a flying car, Smith said. “The experience of cars and the experience of general aviation paint a pretty frightening picture if even more people were get- ting up into the air and were being expected to actually fly,” Smith said.
Among the many obstacles facing developers of electric flying cars is the challenge of managing airspace to prevent accidents, and producing batteries that won’t catch fire or run out in midflight, Smith said.
“This is the Tesla battery problem writ large,” he said. “If anyone has feelings of range anxiety in an electric car, they’re going to have even more anxiety in a flying car because the consequences of battery failure are a lot more severe.”