Audi gets in on the flying car action
Audi, Airbus and ItalDesign have teamed up to develop a vehicle that is both autonomous and can fly.
Posted on 07 March, 2018
Last year at the Geneva motor show, it was reported that Airbus and ItalDesign were co-developing a flying car concept, which was based on wheeled pods that could be picked up by flying drones. Revealed yesterday at this year's show, the Pop.Up concept has been developed further, with Audi stepping in; the concept now bears the name Pop.Up Next. The addition of Audi has resulted in electric and autonomous driving being apart of the vehicle, while Airbus has been refining its quadcopter top and working together with the design firm and the automaker on how to better hand off the two-seat passenger capsule between the wheels on the ground and the rotors in the sky.
In the distant future this vehicle could transport people in cities quickly and conveniently on the road and in the air, at the same time solving traffic problems. The dominant interior feature is a 49-inch screen, while interaction between humans and the machine is performed by speech and face recognition, eye-tracking and a touch function.
“Last year Pop.Up marked a new — and as we believe highly significant — chapter in the transportation sector by bringing together two worlds, road mobility and air transport, which had never previously met,” commented Jörg Astalosch, CEO of Italdesign.
“The close cooperation with the premium brand Audi confirms that the project could become the standard bearer for future mobility, based on new technologies, sustainability, digitalisation and urbanisation; all sectors in which Audi is a leading company."
