Hyundai to build a flying taxi | FOS Future Lab

So far it is only a concept but the South Korean giant suggests take-off in 2028 for the eVTOL – electric vertical take-off and landing – machine, now being developed under the brand name Supernal. We agree, they should have stuck to the names of American cities…

Supernal is the latest example of a car-maker aiming for the stars by transmuting from supplier of products to provider of services, or in the jargon, “seamlessly integrated intermodal mobility solutions”. And in the future, that is increasingly seen to mean leaving terra firma behind. There is a lot more room to move up there than there is down here after all.

Supernal says it is developing a family of electric air vehicles of which the SA-1 is the first. Originally shown last year, it is a fixed-wing aircraft with battery-powered propellers that swivel to provide both vertical take-off and landing and level flight, a bit like a giant drone. It would seat four passengers.

Alas, you wouldn’t fly it yourself, that would be left to the pilot. But using autonomous and machine-learning technologies developed within the Hyundai group, the flying taxi would largely fly itself. Journeys would be planned via an app, along the lines of Uber, but Hyundai says you still might have to drive to the ground hub – they are being called “vertiports” – to catch your air taxi. An electric e-scooter could be provided for the last mile.

Hyundai envisages a network of vertiports for picking up and dropping off (not literally!) passengers. While most of Supernal’s work is being done in the US, the first vertiport prototype is due to be unveiled here in the UK next year as part of the Government’s Future Flight Challenge.

The flying Hyundai is due to enter commercial service on urban routes in 2028. Development before then is being concentrated on making the special batteries with the very high power and energy density needed for eVTOL. This is one electric vehicle where “range anxiety” takes on a whole new meaning…
“In adding a new dimension to mobility, we are on a mission to transform how people and society move, connect and live,” said Hyundai’s president and chief executive of Supernal Jaiwon Shin.

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