Boeing and Porsche team up to build flying cars for the rich

By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 19th November 2019

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

The race is on to capture the publics imagination and create concepts for the next generation of transportation – flying cars.

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It looks like no one wants to be disrupted in the future by the arrival of flying cars, or flying robo-taxi’s as they’re also known – or just big flying drones that carry people – with almost everyone, from Airbus, Aston Martin, Audi, E-Hang, Rolls Royce, to Uber and Volocopter, piling into the space and creating their own concepts, products and even flying taxi stations. Now though, in yet another announcement, German carmaker Porsche is teaming up with aerospace giant Boeing to build a resplendent flying car — a speedy and elegant way for the ultra-wealthy to glide over frustrated peasants stuck in road traffic below.

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“Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility,” said Porsche exec Detlev von Platen in a press release. “In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel.”

Courtesy: Boeing and Porsche

According to Boeing NeXt executive Steve Nordlund, the partnership will provide “an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand” with emphasis on premium, so this isn’t going to be an aircraft for the average Joe.

Fittingly, the renders are gorgeous, with sleek accented lines that seemingly are inspired by Porsche’s iconic car designs, and hopefully one day we’ll see it go into production.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.