At least 15 companies will produce their models of flying cars by 2025. By 2050, new vehicles will be widely used for commercial passenger operations, according to a forecast by the Frost & Sullivan consulting company.
This market segment is of interest not only to specialized startups like AeroMobil, PAL-V, Terrafugia but also to major hi-tech corporations such as Uber, Airbus and Google. Moreover, technology entrepreneurs are making large investment in projects of this kind. Google co-founder Larry Page recently invested more than $100 mio in two startups (Kitty Hawk and Zee.Aero) while the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is supporting developers of a transformer vehicle.
In the past four years, eight companies conducted test flights on prototypes. Car giants like Volkswagen AG, BMW Group and Toyota Motor have been limiting their developments to creating concepts without diving deep into the flying industry. However, Frost & Sullivan experts believe that these companies will also present their flying car prototypes within the next eight years.
Flying cars can be used both by security and emergency services, including ambulance, and as flying taxi. Uber plans to launch an entire fleet of flying taxis between 2025 and 2035 by investing $400 mio to $1 bio into the project.