The weird hybrid future of taxis

Friday, 4 October 2019

Cars are changing rapidly these days, both in a technological sense, but also in the way we buy, use and think about them.

But there is one area of our transport and motoring future that is going to be utterly disrupted more than any other thanks to future technologies - and that is the humble taxi.

Ride sharing, ride hailing companies like Uber and even the proliferation of e-scooters have already hammered the traditional taxi industry, but your options for grabbing a quick and easy ride as a wide range of different options are about to be upon us.

Of course most of them will be autonomous too - ground-based 'robo-taxis' are likely to appear first, but don't expect the happy Johnny Cab robot taxi from Total Recall - the first ones will simply be autonomous versions of ordinary cars, before we see the more futuristic autonomous pods.

**READ MORE:

* The newest hope to beat the traffic: a 'flying' water taxi that glides across town

* Google set to beat Uber with driverless taxi launch

* Flying trains could be coming your way**

Virtually every major traditional car manufacturer working on its own autonomous systems or teaming up with others to do it. But they aren't just looking at automating the cars they sell to private buyers, as taxi fleets, ride hailing and car share programmes will make up a much larger part of their future too.

Companies like Zoox, Navya, Didi Chuxing, Delphi and New Zealand's own Ohmio are all working on robo-taxis of their own as well, while companies like Dominos and Amazon are working on various different autonomous delivery options that even your pizza and unnecessary purchases can travel with less congestion and no emissions.

But it's not just on the ground.

Hybrids are the future of taxis, but before you say 'Duh, most of them already are Toyota Priuses or Camry hybrids', I don't mean hybrid drivetrains - I mean actual hybrid forms of transport that blend cars, planes, helicopters and even boats into multipurpose ways to beat gridlock and get around far more sustainably, because, yeah, most of them are going to be electric too.

So let's take a look at what we think we are likely to see first in our weird hybrid taxi future.

Boeing and Kittyhawk

Aerospace giant Boeing and Kitty Hawk - a company started by Google co-founder Larry Page - are collaborating on what is likely to be the first autonomous flying taxi we will see in the skies. In fact, you can see them in the skies right here in New Zealand now, as the company, Zephyr Airworks, is testing it here, with backing from Air New Zealand.

Called Cora, Zephyr's flying taxi is fully electric and is autonomously 'self-piloted' through software, but with remote human supervision. No runway is required, either, because it takes off like a helicopter, has a dozen motors, three computers and a parachute. The current model has a range of about 100 kilometres and can travel at about 150km/h.

Uber

​The ridesharing company is betting on flying taxis in a big way with its Uber Elevate subsidiary.

Using skyscrapers in large cities as landing pads, Uber plans to use flying taxis to compliment its existing ground-based ride sharing services, including the autonomous cars it is working on.

While the company is working on its own prototype, it is also working with a wide range of partners to establish a network of flying taxi services, and has laid out a series of requirements for vehicles that can be used in its service.

They must be electric only, be capable of vertical take off and landing (VTOL) and can only be operated by a human pilot - the company says it envisages a time when autonomous operation will be a viable option, but will sick with humans for now.

The company plans to start trials in Melbourne next year.

Airbus

Airbus has been working on a range of different flying taxis for a number of years now under the 'Vanhana' project name, teaming up with Audi and Italdesign on some design concepts.

It has already shown off the first result: the single-passenger Vahana Alpha, an eight-rotored tilt-wing design autonomous VTOL prototype that took its first full-scale flight test in early 2018, and has since gone on to make more than 50 more, as well as test the larger Alpha 2.

Volocopter

​Germany's Volocopter is a helicopter style vehicle with multiple rotors and pure-electric motivation.

Already capable of manned flight, the company also plans autonomous versions of its VoloCity aircraft, which has 18 individual electric motors, powered by nine batteries that can be swapped out in minutes.

Volocopter plans to have networks of 'VoloPorts' across major cities and use an Uber-style app for bookings. It has already started testing in Dubai.

​Lilium

​Lilium is probably the most futuristic and fascinating of the current crop of flying taxis, as it eschews rotors in favour of 36 tiny tilting electric jet engines, giving its Lilium Jet a 350km/h top speed, with a 300km range.

The original Lilium Jet could only carry two people (one of them is the pilot), however the company recently revealed a five seat version seen in the video above.

SeaBubble​

Okay, so water taxi is pretty much just a boat at this stage, but there is at least one company that wants to change that.

Just as the upcoming crop of flying taxis are hybrids of planes, helicopters and cars, the SeaBubble water taxi takes a similar approach, just on water.

The SeaBubble is all-electric and uses hydrofoils to rise up out of the water at speeds above 12km/h, which is why the company calls it a hybrid of a plane, boat and a car. The company plans a network of ports at more than 50 cities around the world.