Hyundai has opened up a new division called Urban Air Mobility where it aims to reduce traffic congestion as a result of what Hyundai calls "mega-urbanisation". Heading up this division is Dr. Jaiwon Shin, former leader of Aeronautics Research Mission Dictorate at NASA. Dr. Shin has worked at NASA for 30 years and at Hyundai he plans to develop core technologies for Hyundai to become a leading producer of urban air mobility vehicles. Hyundai has said that their goal for the Urban Air Mobility Division is to "provide innovative and smart solutions never seen or thought of before".
Hyundai is the first automaker toopen up their own flying car development in-house. Other car manufacturers have also been making big investments in this field. Toyota has invested into a project from a group of its employees to make a single-person flying machine with the goal of lighting the Olympic torch in 2020. Geely, the parent company of Volvo and Lotus, has purchased flying car brand Terrafugia and Airbus is working on a modular pod that can attach to a car and a quadrocopter with Audi working on the car part. The "flying car" industry is expected to be worth 1.5 trillion USD in the next 20 years so it is safe to presume that more car brands will start to get involved in this lucrative market.
Comments
Post a Comment