From Wheels to Wings: Our Flying Car Future
b"Can we beat the traffic by taking to the skies?\\n\\nFor more than a century, the automobile has ruled our city streets, chaining us to grid-shaped streets choked with lines of traffic. And for many of us, seemingly endless hours of daily commuting.\\n\\n\\u201cBut what if we can remove those chains?\\u201d asks JoeBen Bevirt of Joby Aviation. \\u201cWhat do our lives, what do our cities, how does the world look 20 years from now or 50 years from now? That's what gets me up everyday.\\n\\n\\u201cSo my mission is to save a billion people an hour a day in their daily commutes.\\u201d\\n\\nThe ability to sail above the freeways in a flying car, getting to work in minutes instead of hours, has long been the stuff of science fiction. But JoeBen Bevirt is already on his way towards making it a reality. He\\u2019s raised more than $100 million to develop a five-seater that he claims will be faster, cheaper and quieter than helicopters. And not just as a plaything for the rich, Bevirt promises.\\n\\n\\u201cWe really want to be able to launch this at an affordable price point that\\u2019s accessible to everyone,\\u201d he says. \\u201cThat is similar cost to taking a taxi on a cost per passenger mile. And then our ambition is to get it to the cost of personal car.\\u201d\\n\\nOther startups around the world are also developing drones or flying cars. Urban air mobility \\u2013 or UAM -- is coming. \\n\\nFor now, there are still many challenges to getting those flying cars off the ground, from infrastructure to regulatory issues, from air traffic to zoning. Not to mention mechanics and design \\u2013 what will the flying car of the future look like? Auto industry consultant Charlie Vogelheim says what comes to mind for most consumers is a cross between the Jetson\\u2019s family-sized space capsule and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.\\n\\n\\u201cThe thing that people keep thinking about when they think about flying cars is, \\u2018where is that car that I can drive and then the wings come out?\\u2019\\u201d\\n\\nGuests:\\nJoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO, Joby Aviation\\nUma Subramanian, CEO, Aero Technologies\\nJennifer Richter, Partner, Akin Gump\\nCharlieVogelheim, Principal, Vogelheim Ventures\\n\\nRelated Links:\\nAir-Taxi Startup has a Working Prototype (Bloomberg)\\nHow Airbus is working to take urban mobility airborne (Pitchbook)\\nBringing Urban Mobility into the Third Dimension (Urban Future)\\n\\nThis program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on August 20th, 2019, and was made possible by the ClimateWorks Foundation.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"