This Company Could Launch Electric Flying Car Races in 2020
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Alauda — an electric flying car company — and its racing series called Airspeeder could be on the brink of taking to the skies — COVID-19 restrictions permitting.
Recently, the company completed a seed investment round that enough raised money to help develop an infrastructure for electric flying car competitions.
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Flying car racing: the F1 of the future
Often in the history of technology, great leaps and advances need more than just the possibility of innovation. To fly ahead of our time, there's nothing like a sharp competitive spirit to push engineers to fly ahead of their time — at least, according to Airspeeder Founder Matt Pearson.
"Nothing drives technology as fast as competition," said Pearson in a press release emailed to Interesting Engineering. "The F1 racers of the early 20th century possessed a pioneering spirit we are harnessing today to rapidly accelerate progress."
When Pearson says "pioneering spirit," he's talking about the work in progress at Airspeeder to jump-start the first GP season of electric flying car racing, which begins tests this year, according to the press release.
A technical facility in Adelaide, Australia, in a joint operation with a global commercial base in London, England, was established to help make these ambitious plans a reality.
"This seed investment represents a significant leap forward in the next great mobility revolution," Matt Pearson explained in a press release.
Innovating the racing scene
Pearson also said that Airspeeder is moving forward with plans for an exhibition race in Coober Pedy by the end of the year, ABC News reports.
In the report, Pearson explained that the race — a demonstration of two remote-controlled flying cars — would also work as a public demonstration.
Airspeeder takes inspiration from flying taxi startups
The idea for the Airspeeder took inspiration from a recent surge in flying taxi startups that are developing drone-like vehicles to transport short-haul travelers of the future.
"Taxis are a great thing to do with this technology, but we also think that there's a great place to fuel innovation in racing," he said.
It's important to note that flying cars with drivers inside may still be a little sci-fi. While Airspeeder has approval from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority to fly large-scale commercial drones, it still needs to negotiate a license to fly crewed tests.
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