Bye Bye to Traffic Jams

Flying cars, or air taxis, have been around for a long time, in both our dreams and in reality. Operable prototypes have been around since the 1960's. And if you have watched re-runs of “The Jetsons” or “Back to the Future,” you may already have indulged in flights of fancy about winging it to work and kissing traffic jams goodbye.

As major brands like Toyota, Uber, Hyundai, Airbus, and Boeing promise to soon whisk riders through the skies in flying taxis, the dream is getting closer to becoming a common shared reality. The goal is to link urban centers with the suburbs while leapfrogging the inconvenience of earth-bound traffic. Call Uber and you could soon catch a ride in an air taxi that could cruise at 180 mph at altitudes of between 1,000 and 2,000 feet. NASA has reported that air space could expand to accommodate air taxi traffic up to an altitude of 5,000 feet.

It’s not surprising that companies — from venture-backed start-ups and Uber to major auto and aviation companies — are rushing to grab a foothold in this nascent market. Flying cars have the potential to significantly disrupt the landscape of urban mobility, and investors are pouring millions into commercialization efforts, attracted to the fact that electric air taxis have the potential to lower operating and maintenance costs dramatically.

Electric air taxis come in several shapes and sizes, and many look quite different from conventional fixed-wing aircraft. Electric motors replace jet engines, and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, designed to avoid the need for long runways, have rotating wings and, in some cases, rotors in place of propellers. Only a few companies are making vehicles that actually look like cars with wings.

“Air taxis are definitely the next phase of mobility,” says Joe Praveen Vijayakumar, Frost & Sullivan senior industry analyst. “Urban centers across the globe are struggling to come to terms with the rising vehicle numbers and the resulting congestion, especially during peak traffic hours. When air taxis become widely commercialized, they will definitely ease the traffic burden on city roads. They will usher in a nimble form of intra-city travel, transporting people on the shortest possible route between two locations.”

But growth faces hurdles. Incidents like the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash have highlighted safety concerns of flying taxis. While the first flying taxi services may have human pilots, later replaced by remote-controlled or AI-powered autonomous vehicles, regulators around the world have been trying to get ahead of the commercialization rush by creating standards within which developers can innovate. Aside from risks to passengers as well as people on the ground, air taxis could pose hazards for other aircraft. And they could also become a target for hackers. Any regulations in development must cover everything from vehicle safety, airworthiness, and traffic control to noise pollution, operator certification, and software security.

How much will it cost? Lilium Aviation (whose 5-seat air taxi is pictured above) Chief Commercial Officer Remo Gerber told CNBC that flights could take passengers from Manhattan to JFK Airport within six minutes for about $70 - much less than Uber’s helicopter rides, which now cost from $200 to $225 for the same trip. (Boeing's Uber Air Taxi pictured below,)