London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Will we be hailing taxis from the sky by 2025?

Flying cars sound like something out of a science fiction film, but money is pouring into the development of human-sized drones and cargo-carrying airships. Will flying taxis soon be stopping outside our doors?

There are few things more frustrating than being stuck in a traffic jam. Just five minutes of standstill during rush hour can get you dreaming of flying cars like the ones from the 1960s cartoon 'The Jetsons'. But could these cars soon be a reality?

Flying car technology


Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft or eV-TOL, as their name suggests, lift off the ground, hover and land vertically. They are ecologically friendly as they are all-electric and built to produce no direct carbon dioxide emissions.

According to IBA, a company that provides aviation data and analytics for aviation finance and airlines, the market for these aircraft is expected to rise to over 21 billion euros by 2035. It's a figure keeping investors with their eyes in the sky.

More than 50 firms are currently developing several prototype aircraft with the capacity to transport up to 20 passengers. One such company is the Turkish start-up AirCar.

Self-driving taxis


Since it was founded in 2017, AirCar has been looking for ways out of the traffic gridlock. Based in Turkey’s version of Silicon Valley, AirCar is partnered with the country’s largest software maker. Instead of waiting for governments to slowly build bigger roads and better public transportation, the company has set its sights higher. Its ultimate goal is to have a network of flying taxis that are entirely electric-powered and self-driving.

An AirCar prototype


After conducting more than a thousand small-scale trials, testing on a full-sized prototype began this year. AirCar’s CEO, Eray Altunbozar, says the company expects to start carrying passengers by early 2025. But there are still barriers to overcome. One of these is the size of today's public transport.

The challenges


As Dr. Andreas Bardenhagen, a professor at the Technical University of Berlin, explains, if you compare the number of passengers a train or a bus can transport to a modern-day helicopter, it's much less. If you want to transport hundreds of people in flying taxis, for example, "you’ll get a very crowded air space". Dr. Bardenhagen is not sure whether the public will accept this.

Another complication is the national and international regulations regarding things that fly. Phil Seymour is the president of IBA. He says that all "the countries around the world have regulators that follow strict manufacturing design guidelines." To him, this ensures that there is a safety and regulation network in place. However, it could slow down plans for a mainstream flying taxi service.

A sustainable option


Despite these difficulties, AirCar wants to be an industry disruptor and it is willing to take the road less travelled to build a new flying future. To its CEO, Altunbozar, this project is also about sustainable technologies, an industry he worked in previously. It was working on current technologies like lithium-ion batteries, composites, drone technologies and AI that he realised it was possible to get into the flying car business.

The promise of heli-cars is to transport humans over shorter distances, but what about bigger deliveries? The French company, Flying Whales, says its huge blimp-like airships cannot only transport 60-tonne payloads over long distances, but it can do so sustainably.

An airship made by Flying Whales


Its CEO, Sebastien Bougon, even says that the company could revolutionise the healthcare industry. According to him, this is possible using large capacity airships to deliver hospitals to remote areas or islands. Once the hospitals have helped the people for the time they need, they can then be moved to other remote areas so that they can get the same quality healthcare as big cities.

Flying cars and new modes of air transport are no longer a fantasy. Billions of euros are already fuelling dozens of start-ups worldwide. But will it remain a novelty for the rich or can it truly transform how we all travel? Only one thing is for sure, a change is in the air.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×