It’s 2022 Where Are The Flying Cars?

Another year has flown by without the long-promised arrival of flying cars. A cynic might say “Didn’t we have enough problems in 2021?” But others keep the faith, knowing that one day we will slip the surly bonds of earthbound traffic and soar over gridlock in a flying car.

As we enter 2022, what is the state of the flying car ‘industry?’

Tech-focused companies like Japan’s NEC Corp. have built demonstration vehicles like the APTOPIX which flew to a height of three meters for about a minute in 2019.

Companies like Aeromobil are trying to build and commercialize roadworthy, wheeled flying cars. Or, if you have a spare $92,000 lying around, there’s this.

Then there is this impressive video of Aircar by Klein Vision. A sportscar-like craft takes off from a grass field, flies to the Bratislava airport, folds its wings and drives into town. The video, shot in June 2021, has almost seven million views.

But most business buzz is about EVTOL, or electric vertical takeoff and lift aircraft. Concept “taxis” like the Nexus from Bell are designed to fly four passengers plus a pilot (who will disappear when full automation arrives) up to 150 miles, using multiple rotors powered by battery-powered electric engines.

The Nexus air taxi was a big hit at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show. It recently re-appeared as a display at the Smithsonian without flying, let alone carrying a paying passenger. At the Smithsonian exhibit on ‘FUTURES’ it was joined by another tech dream that has yet to reach the masses. That would be a rare 1960s-era Bell Aerospace Company Rocket Belt, the world’s first jet pack.

The concept of urban transportation systems that move people by air is now known as urban air mobility, or UAM. The FAA says the UAM concept “envisions a safe and efficient aviation transportation system that will use highly automated aircraft that will operate and transport passengers or cargo at lower altitudes within urban and suburban areas.”

When it arrives, UAM will be composed of “an ecosystem that considers the evolution and safety of the aircraft, the framework for operation, access to airspace, infrastructure development, and community engagement.”

Creating and building such infrastructure is an entirely different challenge than building successful EVTOL vehicles and getting them certified by the FAA. But both will have to be accomplished before any widespread ‘flying car’ adoption can take place.

Uber was one of the largest proponents of urban air mobility, promising a rollout of air vehicles in initial markets of Los Angeles and Dallas-Ft. Worth by 2023. The company launched the Uber Elevate network to partner with others to build out UAM infrastructure and vehicles. In this tantalizing near-future, robotic EVTOLs would lift off, flying paying passengers up to 100 miles on an electronic grid above crowded highway. When it landed, it would be met by Uber ground vehicles and passengers would go their separate ways.

At the 2020 CES show, Hyundai partnered with Uber in showing a full-sized mock-up of a EVTOL craft. The Hyundai S-A1 electric Urban Air Mobility ‘concept’, co-branded with Uber Elevate, sat just out of reach of the gawking crowd,.

Hyundai has since spun out its flying car company, calling the new group Supernal. It expects the first EVTOL flying taxi to go into service in 2028.

Another former Elevate partner, Embraer, is spinning out its EVTOL group, Eve. The new company will go public via SPAC with a claimed $2.4 billion valuation.

The parent company of Elevate survived the pandemic, but Uber remains under its IPO price of $45. Perhaps consumed with questions of profitability and survival during COVID, Uber transferred its Elevate group to Joby Aviation last December. As part of the deal Uber invested an additional $75 million in Joby.

Joby, founded in 2009, says it plans to launch an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi as early as 2023. The company, which raised more than $820 million and employs more than 500, went public via SPAC this year. Joby may need all that cash and more; industry experts believe it can take a billion dollar to build an EVTOL vehicle and get it through the FAA certification process. Joby stock (JOBY:NYSE) reached $13.40 on its launch date of August 11. On December 29 it closed at 6.98.

Known primarily as a helicopter and seaplane seat booking service on the US East Coast, Blade Air Mobility (BLDE: NASDAQ) announced plans to get into the nascent UAM business by ordering 20 EVTOL aircraft from Beta Technologies. Beta’s six passenger Alia EVTOL, said to be delivered by 2024, has a projected range of 250 nautical miles and cruising speed of 170 miles per hour. Blade called itself the “first publicly traded urban air mobility company” when it launched its SPAC in May 2021.

At the last Consumer Electronics Show in 2020 I attended a UAM panel which ended with a speaker exhorting the crowd to contact their legislators and push for funding UAM infrastructure. With the advent of COVID-19, legislators soon found themselves with more pressing issues, as did CES attendees. Now the CES Show where such new technologies are launched, is itself threatened with cancellation by COVID.

At the panel, proponents of EVTOLs and UAM networks touched on potential local opposition. They believed it would center on noise from the new, low-flying aircraft. But communities may be more concerned about the potential of a low-flying EVTOL to crash into homes or schools. In Los Angeles, designated as one of the two launch sites for Uber Elevate in 2023, memories of the Kobe Bryant crash are still fresh.

Los Angeles actually once had a ‘vertical airline.’ All-helicopter Los Angeles Airways served much of Southern California, including Disneyland. Unfortunately, two fatal helicopter crashes, each killing more than 20 people, put LAA out of business in 1971.

Will this generation of flying cars fly past such issues? In the EVTOL world, as with the entire aviation industry, 2021 was a year of transition and consolidation. So far, the world of flying cars has been about deals, demos, prototypes, mock-ups, and artist’s conceptions. Will such dreams finally come true by 2023?

Many issues must be addressed before urban air mobility actually arrives. But flying cars are an idea that will never go away.