Porsche wants to be the next manufacturer to launch into the race to create a flying car, according to the company's sales manager, Detlev von Platen, to the German magazine Automobilwoche this weekend. It would be a vehicle with which users would not even need a license to drive it, since many actions would be automated.
The German magazine has also said that Porsche is already working on a first design sketch, which would soon show to give the first brushstrokes to what we might expect from his flying car. The media also points out that the company's sales manager has told them that Porsche would like to use the vehicle to enter the air taxi market.
"Really, it makes sense, if I drive from Zuffenhausen to the Stuttgart airport, I need at least half an hour, hopefully, it could take me three and a half minutes to fly," von Platen told Automobilwoche.
However, it is advisable to remain prudent despite the statements. For starters Porsche has not made any official announcement confirming these statements, but even if they are true, we would be only before a first draft of a project. This means that, at best, it could be a few years since this design is presented until we see it become a functional model.
In any case, it is a movement that makes sense, since Volkswagen itself, the parent company of Porsche, already collaborated last year in the design of a flying car called Pop.Up System at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. This conceptual vehicle had been designed by the Italian company 'Italdesign' in collaboration with Airbus, but also other manufacturers such as BMW, Alfa Romeo and Volkswagen itself.
As for the flying vehicle, at the moment the only thing that is known is that most of its functions would be automated to not require a driver's license. But according to the German magazine, the passenger would also have some control over him, so he would not be totally autonomous. We'll have to wait and see how that first concept ends up being.
The race for the flying car gains weight
The electric taxi sector may not yet be a tangible reality, but there are more and more large companies willing to bet on it. Without going any further, last November Uber announced its alliance with NASA to start testing with its flying cars in 2020, and the parent company of Volvo bought that same month Terrafugia, one of the main startups dedicated to this type of vehicle.
We have also seen other companies such as Toyota take an interest in this concept, prototypes of the manufacturer of the AK47, and other companies such as Hoversurf or personalities such as Larry Page, who have gone a step further by looking directly for the flying bikes.
At the moment the most advanced are Volocopter, which are already testing in Dubai with its autonomous electric helicopter looking for a concept similar to that of the flying taxi. But there is no doubt that we are facing a new concept of the automotive industry that we will continue to hear enough during this year.