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Drone taxis will be flying passengers from Malaga Airport by 2030
The air taxi between Málaga and Marbella will take just 20 minutes and cost around 100 euros
Still relatively new sights in our skies, drones have been put to all sorts of noble uses over the last few years, spotting stranded hikers in hard-to-reach-areas, monitoring the course of natural disasters like wildfires, and even spraying Spain’s towns and cities with insecticides against mosquitoes.
There’s no doubt that drones are a useful and sometimes essential tool, but would you step foot on a life-sized one and trust it to ferry you home safely? Well, you might have the chance to decide sooner than you think, as it seems that drone taxis are just a few years away.
Two formidable companies have joined forces on the Costa del Sol to develop a flying cab that they say will be capable of carrying passengers from Málaga to Marbella in just 20 minutes by the year 2030. And given the crazy rates regular taxi drivers are charging these days, the estimated hundred euros per passenger sounds like a bargain.
Carlos Poveda, CEO of Crisalion Mobility, is confident that his air taxi will begin operating in Malaga in 2030 and assures that it is the transport of the future.
The flying cab prototype is fairly small, a cross between a plane and a helicopter, and its kept airborne by a series of drones. According to one of the manufacturers, it will initially be flown by a pilot while any issues are being ironed out, but the air taxis should be controlled remotely in the very near future.
As an added bonus for nervous flyers, the fully automated system will mean that the cabin is completely stable, even when there’s turbulence.
The price of the trip will be cheaper than a helicopter and the environmental impact will be “zero because it is 100% electric,” according to Mr Poveda, who added that each craft can carry five passengers, plus the pilot.
For now, the Málaga to Marbella trip is the main focus, but the leading company has hinted that it will soon propose different routes and begin working on the logistics of expanding the services of the air taxi across Spain.
Images: Crisalion Mobility
staff.inc.and
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