Dhe cockpit of the Cartivator is clear. There are hardly any buttons or switches, and there is also no control stick. You slide into a black seat shell and only see a large screen in front of you. The flight data is then displayed: speed, course, altitude and the speed of the four small electrically powered rotors.
The cartivator has skids and looks like an oversized drone. There is room for two people in it, they sit one behind the other. Everything is a little tight, not to be compared to the inside of a car, but efficient. And efficiency, says Keisuke Yasukochi from the Japanese manufacturer Skydrive, is everything in the mobility of the future.
“Our vehicle,” explains Yasukochi, “is supposed to free the world’s metropolises from traffic jams.” He describes the cartivator as a flying car. From 2025, according to the vision, the vehicle will glide through the air as a taxi, first in Japan, then in other countries. And that autonomously. But there is still a long way to go before then. You can see the Cartivator this week at the CES in Las Vegas, the largest tech fair in the world – but only as a model.
This has been going on for years. Not only at CES, but also at other trade fairs. Manufacturers from all over the world present flying cars – something like the ultimate vision of science fiction fans. A dream of mankind. But the devices are mostly just empty shells. They look futuristic, but have never lifted off the ground.
The French company Maca is exhibiting the S Eleven, a kind of Formula 1 car of the air, at the CES this year. Or to be more precise: a 50 centimeter image of it. The American start-up Aska is showing a four-seat aircraft that is reminiscent of a large glass egg. None of the exhibits has flown so far. The cartivator at least completed a test: Last year, on a test site in the Japanese mountains, it floated three meters above the ground for a few minutes.
The German start-ups Lilium and Volocopter have made progress, they have already made long trips with various maneuvers. More than 100 companies around the world work on flying cars, including Airbus, Boeing, Hyundai and Honda. In fact, analysts see a large market for the machines. By 2030, according to a report by the US bank Morgan Stanley, the volume could amount to more than 320 billion dollars.
The current vehicles are more reminiscent of small helicopters than of cars. The industry speaks of eVTOL, which stands for “electric vertical take-off and landing”, ie electrically powered aircraft that take off and land vertically. But only a few models can fly and drive like a car. One of them is the Aska, for example.
The vision should have been a reality long ago: The travel agent no longer wanted to get its passengers from A to B in cars, but also with the Nexus from the American manufacturer Bell, actually known for its attack helicopters. So far nothing has come of it.
“It’s moving more slowly than expected,” says Yasukochi, who is responsible for business development at Skydrive. “The expectations that have existed in recent years have been exaggerated.” But what is the problem? Why is there still no car that can fly out there?
Is this what future mobility will look like?
No more traffic jams. Fly over it very comfortably and at taxi prices. That is the vision behind autonomous air taxis. But when should they exist and how safe are they? Editor Kim von Ciriacy speaks about these questions with Christian Bauer, CCO at Volocopter.
For Yasukochi, one reason is bureaucracy. “Our vehicles are half car, half drone,” he explains, “no authority in the world knows what to do with them.” In fact, eVTOL vehicles have never been approved for traffic anywhere and only in rare cases for tests. In addition, says Yasukochi, the public must first be convinced. “Flying cars look great in films,” he says, “but when things really go flying over our heads, a lot of people are likely to get scared.” That was also the case with drones at the beginning.
But the biggest problem, says Yasukochi, is the lack of infrastructure. The cities would have to create a dense network of take-off and landing sites so that the vision can become reality. “There is a huge public investment required,” said Yasukochi. “So it’s all a question of political will.” The Japanese believes that it will be ten to 15 years before air taxis go into regular service. It will be at least 30 years before we have flying cars in our garages and start with them on our doorstep.
The French company Maca developed the S Eleven
What: Maca
Thierry de Boisvilliers is a little more optimistic. “Five years,” he says, “then the first air taxis will carry passengers.” Boisvilliers founded the Maca company and designed the S Eleven, a streamlined single-seater that is supposed to be 250 kilometers per hour and more like a fighter jet than a car looks like.
The technology is there, but the public infrastructure is not
“The S Eleven is not intended for everyday use,” says Boisvilliers, a former helicopter pilot in the French military. “It should show what is possible.” Advances in the car industry, explains Boisvilliers, are often achieved through racing. And that is also the case with flying cars. His S Eleven should take off for the first test in the summer.
According to the French, the vision of the flying car for everyone is unlikely to become a reality until the distant future. “We are still a long way from there,” he says. The technology is largely available, but not the public infrastructure. And the legal situation is also completely unclear. That starts with very simple questions. For example: what do you need to drive a flying car – driver’s license, pilot’s license, or both? “We have to curb our imagination a little,” says Boisvilliers.
Aska founder Guy Kaplinsky at the CES in Las Vegas
Source: Stefan Beutelsbacher
Guy Kaplinsky doesn’t think so. At the CES he is showing a full-size model of the Aska – the glass egg. The aska is less Spartan than the Japanese cartivator. Anyone who sits in the cockpit will find both: a joystick for flying and a steering wheel for driving on the road.
“Such cars are no longer a dream of the future,” says Kaplinsky, “we will soon see them in our cities.” The Aska should be available from 2026. But you will probably not be allowed to start with him on the doorstep. It is certain that the FAA will not approve anything in the foreseeable future. The owners will have to drive their Aska to an airport and take off from there. Alternatively, you can build a certified helipad in the garden. And the Aska is not cheap either. It costs $ 789,000. So it is hardly a flying car for everyone.
“Everything on stocks” is the daily stock market shot from the WELT business editorial team. Every morning from 7 a.m. with our financial journalists. For stock market experts and newcomers. Subscribe to the podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer. Or directly via RSS-Feed.
.