Audi stops dreaming and suspends its flying car project

In November 2018, during the Amsterdam Drone Week, the trio formed by the German car manufacturer Audi, the Italian designer Italdesign and the aerospace giant Airbus unveiled a prototype of a small scale air taxi. The project, named Pop.Up Next, received a good reception from the public and Audi said at the time want to continue the project. The manufacturer has just indicated that it is working on a new orientation for its urban air mobility activities and thathe suspends his studies on the air taxi Pop.Up Next. His two partners have not yet commented on a possible end of the partnership.

Other manufacturers continue to study the future of urban transportation and flying cars

Despite the withdrawal of Audi, theautonomous flying vehicles could come into beingbecause other automakers are interested in this concept. They see flying taxis as a mobility solution of the future, especially in cities with congested roads. They would make it possible to get rid of traffic jams and thus save valuable time.

Uber has unveiled his flying taxi project at CES 2019. Daimler, for example, holds a stake in the German startup Volocopter aerial taxi. Elon Musk dreams of flying his Tesla Roadster using the SpaceX thrusters. Aston Martin took advantage of the Farnborough Air Show in 2018 to present the Volante Vision Concept .. And the Chinese group Zhejiang Gelly Holding Group, which owns Volvo, acquired in 2017 the American manufacturer of flying cars Terrafugia.

In addition to technical constraints, national regulations generally restrict the development of these concepts. This does not preclude the CEO of Volocopter to estimate that they will be quickly implemented in the big cities. He said that Singapore, Dubai and Germany were the most open markets for these innovations. In September 2019, the company made its first European urban flight in its hometown: Stuttgart.