Airbus’ Flying Car Project Is Called Vahana

The aviation giant will unveil a prototype by the end of 2017

If we were to sum up the world’s auto manufacturing scene in one sentence, it would be this: every single company is, directly or indirectly, either working towards or hoping to begin working towards an all-electric and autonomous means of transport. And we aren’t exaggerating! But Airbus has other plans. For the European aviation company, the entire concept of land transport – be it autonomous, electric or connected to the infrastructure – is completely old-school. Airbus is renowned for manufacturing state-of-the-art commercial and passenger aircraft and helicopters but, last year, it formed a new ‘Urban Air Mobility’ division with the specific aim of developing the future of personal transportation.

According to a Reuters report, Airbus is working on a type of vehicle that will address the problem of congestion in our cities. Its Urban Air Mobility division, now dubbed as A3, is working on a project called Vahana – which in Sanskrit means ‘vehicle’ – to come up with a viable a self-piloted flying vehicle. How cool does that sound? What’s more, the company is claiming that it will have a prototype ready by the end of this year and a production-ready version will be launched in about 10 years from now.

Airbus envisions the future of mobility as one in which its autonomous flying vehicles will be shared via common platforms similar to Uber or Lyft. While the final product will aim to carry multiple passengers, the prototype is likely to be a single seater.

The flying car concept sounds perfect, but Airbus isn’t the only company working to conceive one for the future. At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, we saw the unveiling of the EHang 184 passenger drone. Zee.Aero is another company that is working on developing flying cars.