After decades of waiting, people are finally approaching the Holy Grail of science fiction technologies – a flying machine. Airbus already has a suitable and ready-to-use technology for creating a flying car, but the biggest challenge is managing a new mode of transport. At the moment, even from the point of view of the legislation, flights on own flying machines are impossible.
The prototype of the flying car Airbus Vahana is completely autonomous. However, there are difficulties here too. The task, which Airbus is now trying to solve, is to take off and land in an automatic mode. It is easy to teach the car to ensure that during landing it is parallel to the ground, but air taxis will not always land and take off under ideal conditions. Like unmanned vehicles, they must learn to deal with unexpected scenarios, such as fallen trees or sudden pedestrians.
It seems that the solution to the problem was found thanks to the technology company Near Earth Autonomy, which developed a convenient control system called Peregrin. The system uses lasers to scan a potential landing pad for hazards or obstacles. If Vahana tries to land in a place where, for example, people are, Peregrin will detect them, and the flying car will choose another place for planting.
Currently, the Peregrin system is being improved, and Airbus representatives hope that they will be able to begin testing the technology on Vahana prototypes this year.
Flying cars Airbus will teach self-landing
