Don’t Touch the Door! What It’s Like to Ride in a Flying Taxi
Today on the Big Take: Billions of dollars and years of R&D have gone into flying taxi prototypes. Will they actually take off with customers?
An Ehang Holdings Ltd. EH216-S passenger-carrying electric unmanned aerial vehicle in China.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergListen and follow The Big Take on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts
The taxis of the future are already here. And they’re airborne. After years of research and development and billions in investment, autonomous flying taxis are finally poised to take off. Companies working on these pilotless vehicles have been quietly working on prototypes — and recently, Bloomberg reporter Colum Murphy took a test flight in one of the first models operating in China.
But once the technology is proven, new challenges begin: the industry will have to navigate regulatory hurdles, which can vary country to country, and find a customer base that will trust this new form of air-travel. On today’s episode, Murphy takes the Big Take on his flying taxi ride, and his colleague Angus Whitley explains why it’s a make or break moment for the industry.