A small company called A³ or A cubed which is also an advanced projects and partnerships outpost of Airbus Group in Silicon Valley, is working on a project named Vahana. What this project aims to do is to taxi folks in a flying drone. Well, a drone might sound crude. It is. What the good folks at A³ are actually trying to build a prototype which flys (hence the affiliation with Airbus), doesn’t need a runway, is self-piloted, and can automatically detect and avoid obstacles and other aircraft.
The craft is designed to carry a single passenger or cargo and they are aiming for a full production ready unit in 2020. The company is truly aiming for an autonomous flight network as well in the same way many companies are looking at creating a fleet of autonomous vehicles. Another problem the company aims to tackle is to get people to avoid traffic congestion which is escalating at an alarming rate.
Base on specs, the craft would take off like a helicopter so all it would need is a place to land and take-off. Whether it may be autonomous or self-flying, this craft is designed to run on batteries. With the current battery technology, the Vahana can probably reach around 60 miles in range and if the technology of battery density improves over the next couple of years, project Vahana hopes to be able to increase the craft’s range.
Check out more about Vahana here.
