Big Take: The billion-dollar promise of flying taxis

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After years of research and development and billions in investment, autonomous flying taxis are finally poised to take off. Companies working on these pilotless vehicles have been quietly working on prototypes. In this bonus from The Big Take, Bloomberg reporter Colum Murphy takes a test flight in one of the first models operating in China, and his colleague Angus Whitley explains why it’s a make or break moment for the industry.

Plus: Hear a past episode episode of Zero about flying cars with Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has been working to create a battery that can power an aircraft on a trip over 200 miles.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Akshad. This week as an extra, we are bringing you a fun episode from the big take about flying taxis.
0:07.6	Yes, they're real. There might even be a commercial one flying as soon as this year.
0:13.7	If you're a new listener to Zero, I would also urge you to go back into the archives and listen to a show about flying taxis we did on zero, where I was super
0:22.8	skeptical that it can be a climate solution. You can find the link in the show notes. Enjoy the big take.
0:31.9	Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts Radio News.
0:47.2	I'm about to step into a flying taxi, and if that's not radical enough for you, this one has no pilot.
0:54.3	That's Bloomberg reporter Collum Murphy. He's based in Beijing, and he volunteered to go on a test flight, in a test model of a flying taxi in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
0:59.8	First step, fasten your seatbelt.
1:02.1	Okay, I'm just going to fasten the seatbelt.
1:07.7	And in the air, please do not touch the door.
1:10.7	Okay, I got it touch the door. Okay.
1:11.6	I got it. Thank you.
1:13.6	So I'm buckled in and we're just about to take off.
1:17.6	I can't believe I'm doing this and that there's nobody flying this.
1:21.6	Column did not touch the door, as instructed, and tried to stay calm as the machine shot 100 feet up into the air.
1:31.0	I'm actually a little bit scared to look out the window, but it feels very, very stable and a bit noisier than I expected.
1:42.7	The prototype vehicle Column Rodin was designed by China-based E-Hang Holdings,
1:48.4	and it could become the world's first commercially operating flying taxi as soon as this year.
1:56.2	It's here and it's now, and it's probably a lot earlier than people have any idea about.
2:01.9	That's Angus Whitley, a Bloomberg global business reporter based in Sydney.
2:06.7	He says that right now, all over the world, transportation companies are racing to put driverless cars into the sky.
2:15.0	Billions of dollars in investments and venture capital have fueled the technology
	...

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