From New Atlas, May 23:
Electric VTOL air taxis are one of the great emerging technologies of our time, promising to unlock the skies as traffic-free, high-speed, 3D commuting routes. Much quieter and cheaper than helicopter travel, they'll also run on zero-local-emission electric power, and many models suggest they'll cost around the same per mile as a ride share.
Eventually, the market seems to agree, they'll be pilotless automatons, even cheaper and more reliable than the earliest piloted versions. Should the onboard autopilot computers get confused, remote operators will take over and save the day as if they're flying a Mavic drone, and every pilot gone will be an extra passenger seat in the sky.
Large numbers of eVTOL air taxis will change the way cities and lifestyles are designed. Skyports atop office buildings, train stations and last-mile transport depots will encourage multi-mode commuting. Real estate in scenic coastal areas might boom as people swap 45 minutes crawling along in suburban traffic for 45 minutes of 120 mph (200 km/h) air travel, and decide to live further from the office.
Several companies have told us they believe they can deliver an air taxi service for about the same price as it would cost to take an Uber. Mind you, this assumes medium to long distance trips, and it's not exactly cheap to take a 40-mile (64 km) Uber ride.
The technology doesn't feel far away. Electric multirotors deliver excellent hover stability thanks to the enormous, near-instant torque production of electric motors, which can respond very quickly to stabilize an aircraft as wind conditions move it around. And there are a plethora of different takes on how these machines should be built.....MUCH MORE
Some designs are as simple as big multirotors with passenger cabins. Others attempt to extend range by adding complexity in the form of tilting rotors and multi-mode flight; hovering like a multirotor, they transition to wing-assisted forward flight, which is much more efficient but dynamically more complicated.
What's stopping us from having eVTOL air taxis today, then?
These machines still have a few major challenges left to overcome.
The first is the same problem that's holding back high-performance electric motorcycles: current lithium battery technology simply doesn't allow you to carry enough energy yet. Until energy density is at least doubled, most of these designs don't offer range endurance long enough to make them commercially viable. These big battery packs will need charging, too, which would ground the aircraft for a significant time....
