World's first flying electric racecar is eyeing the Olympics
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Australia-based company Airspeeder, which engineered the world’s first flying electric racing car, is now training its electric pods to be part of the Olympic sport one day, according to a report by ABC News published on Friday.
"It is the future, it is pod racing in the sky… it's Star Wars," the company's head of media Stephen Sidlo told ABC News.
"We're not a plane, and we're not a drone… we're a whole new transportation system," he said.
"This is what they call an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft… it can go in multiple directions and dimensions."
Trials for the new aircraft are currently being undertaken in the South Australian desert.
"Once we've built and tested all these flying cars, and we've done a number of races, we're going to move to a live broadcast model," Sidlo said.
"And that will open up a lot of opportunities for the world to see what we've been doing in South Australia."
Soon, the flying racing cars could also use augmented reality to join immersive gaming worlds.
The company’s hope is that flying racing pods will become a demonstration sport at the 2032 Olympic Games.
"We'd love to be at the Olympics and do something there," Sidlo said.
"But the only way we're really going to get there is if we validate what the sport looks like, get broadcasts, get a desire from the audience on what they want to see, and also test this safety system.
"Once we've done that then yeah, we'll knock on the door of the Olympics and see what we can do."
Dealing with transport problems
John Persico, a director at the Australian Sports Technologies Network, told ABC News that new sports technologies, such as the cars, will prove beneficial to the Games in Brisbane, particularly in alleviating transport problems and shining a light on potential new sporting competitions.
"I define sports technology as the intersection of data, digital and technology at the intersection of sport, entertainment, media and health," Persico said.
"It's one of the most exciting areas for the 2032 Olympics, the ability to be able to create jobs, to create new opportunities, and to create an extraordinary experience for the largest sporting event in the world."
"We've got a really strong local industry with 650 companies in Australia doing sports innovation-related activities across 35 different categories."
Airspeeder first made headlines with its flying racecar in June of 2021. Last month, Maca Flight unveiled its improved hydrogen-powered flying racecar.
The report was first published in ABC News.
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