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Tag: Flying Cars

  • Elon Musk Tells Joe Rogan That He Will Demo a Flying Car by End of Year

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    Billionaire oligarch Elon Musk appeared on the latest episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast on Friday. And while much of the conversation covered topics we’ve heard before, Musk decided to drop some news about something he wants to demo by the end of the year: a flying car.

    Stop us if you’ve heard this one before—from Musk himself, no less, who has been talking about making a flying car since at least 2014.

    Musk’s flying car dreams came up in the context of Tesla’s Roadster, a car that was originally produced from 2008 to 2012. The second-generation Roadster has been promised by Musk for years, but he’s always failed to deliver since the original target date of 2020. When Rogan asked the Tesla CEO about the Roadster’s status, Musk slowly made it clear that he wants it to fly. But it took him some time during the conversation to actually reveal what he was talking about.

    “We’re getting close to….” Musk said with a long pause, “…demonstrating the prototype. One thing I can guarantee is that this product demo will be unforgettable. Unforgettable.”

    Rogan didn’t quite understand because Musk hadn’t revealed that he was referring to a flying car. The podcaster asked him how it would be unforgettable. Musk replied with a laugh, “Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable.” Rogan was still confused, asking Musk to explain.

    “Well, you know, my friend Peter Thiel, once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars,” said Musk, finally giving a hint.

    Thiel, the cofounder of Palantir and Musk’s old friend from his days at PayPal, is another far-right billionaire who spends his days talking about the Antichrist in the most sweaty manner possible. Rogan couldn’t quite understand what Musk was saying and pressed him further, to which Musk replied, “I mean, I think if Peter wants a flying car, we should be able to buy one.”

    Rogan asked Musk if the vehicle would have a “retractable wing,” imploring him to elaborate further. Musk replied that he “can’t do the unveil before the unveil,” but said that he thinks, “it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever.” The billionaire said he hoped to unveil it “before the end of the year,” putting an emphasis on hopefully.

    None of this should be a surprise for anyone who’s followed Musk over the past decade. He often likes to roll out prototypes and ideas long before they’re ready to deliver. That doesn’t mean you’ll actually see those things in the form they were promised.

    Remember Musk’s idea for the Hyperloop? Or the more modest Loop system, which was supposed to be a 155-mile-per-hour autonomous mass transit system? It was going to be able to carry 16 people at a time, zipping around in tunnels underneath cities. When it came time for Musk to deliver, he built a tunnel in Las Vegas where human drivers ferry around people in regular Tesla vehicles at slow speeds.

    Which is to say that Musk might very well hold a demo of a flying car soon, though a prototype isn’t the same thing as a product that hits the market. Musk also unveiled an autonomous two-seater Cybercab over a year ago, and there are no indications that it will be released anytime soon. The Robotaxis, on the other hand (regular Tesla vehicles that drive “autonomously” with a safety driver in the passenger seat), are already shuttling people around in Texas.

    There’s also the issue that confronts every flying car inventor of the past century: Since flying is much more difficult and dangerous than driving, how large is the market for something like this? Any aircraft that carries passengers in the U.S. needs to be flown by someone with a pilot’s license. Unless, of course, it’s an autonomous flying vehicle. And that presents its own logistical challenges, such as coordinating air traffic.

    The full episode, which is available on YouTube, includes the broader conversation, but Musk definitely hedged on the timing of his flying Roadster while talking with Rogan.

    “You know, we need to make sure that it works,” said Musk. “Like this is some crazy, crazy technology we got in this car. Crazy… technology. Crazy crazy.”

    Rogan asked him if it was different than what was previously announced for the Roadster, which Musk confirmed.

    “It has crazy technology. Like, is it even a car? I’m not sure. It looks like a car,” said Musk. “Let’s just put it this way. It’s crazier than anything James Bond… if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”

    It’s interesting that Musk is giving hints that it might not be a “car.” It’s entirely possible that this means he’s developing a vertical take-off and landing vehicle (VTOL), which typically doesn’t drive on the road, but can still shuttle passengers. Many VTOL promises of the past decade have grabbed headlines as “flying cars,” even though they don’t actually drive on the road at all and function much more like helicopters.

    Rogan was stunned, saying that he didn’t know what to think because he was only getting a “limited amount of information.” Musk, clearly sensing skepticism, told Rogan that if he wanted to see it before the unveiling, he would show it to him.

    Are we going to see a flying car soon? It sounds like it. But we’ve had functioning flying cars since at least the 1950s. Are we going to see something that will be more than just a flashy distraction from the fact that Tesla vehicle sales are in the toilet ever since Musk aligned himself with President Donald Trump and made those two Nazi-style salutes? That part remains to be seen.

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    Matt Novak

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  • DeSantis wants to test flying cars in Central Florida

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    Credit: via Gov. Ron DeSantis/X

    Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue hope to land the next generation of air transport companies at a testing facility in Central Florida.

    Perdue for years has championed advanced air mobility, which would involve establishing “vertiports” in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.

    DeSantis recently saying he was “mildly excited” about the effort to reduce congestion along the I-4 corridor, Florida will first try to attract the growing technology to Polk County.

    While few details were released, DeSantis and Perdue on Thursday announced plans for an aerial test bed at the department’s SunTrax facility in Polk County.

    The test facility will include two vertiports, which are take-off and landing sites for primarily electric vertical take-off and landing, “VTOL,” aircraft.

    “The idea would be, if they could do this to scale, if they can make it economical, it would take some traffic off the roads, because people, they could cycle through with travelers on doing that. So we’re just trying to have as many options as possible,” DeSantis said during an announcement that was focused on new express lanes on I-4 in Hillsborough County and a truck parking facility along I-4 in Polk County.

    Once green-lighted from the federal government, the VTOLs would be expected to provide short air transport “like an Uber” and potentially draw investments from deep-pocketed “Wall Street guys,” according to the governor.

    “It’s not going to go from Miami to Jacksonville or Miami to Pensacola,” DeSantis said “It’s really within that 60 miles. And in areas where there is traffic, where you want to get from maybe one urban center to the next, it makes a lot of sense.”

    The test facility will help the private sector quickly advance into the “age of flying cars” in Florida, Perdue added.

    Perdue and DeSantis saw prototypes of the VTOLs in June at the Paris Air Show, an international aerospace trade fair and air show. Perdue said that some of the prototypes are expected to get federal approval in 2026 for supervised trials.

    “How can we support the private sector being successful? Speed to market,” Perdue said. “You cut through the red tape. You give them the ability to start operating and operating quickly and become profitable. And this will be a new opportunity for Florida residents. So this is our goal.”

    Perdue earlier this year encouraged lawmakers to support the establishment of vertiports in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.

    “So, you can think about movies that you’ve seen that are science fiction. The Jetsons, yeah, is one of those … that’s a classic. This is actually becoming a reality,” Perdue told members of the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee in February.

    The Paris Air Show elevated DeSantis’ support in the high-tech transport from “mildly interested” to “mildly excited,” the governor said Thursday.

    “I mean, I do have questions too. But I think what we’re doing makes a lot of sense, because, to the extent the industry has the ability to innovate, they’re going to want to do that in conjunction with SunTrax,” DeSantis said.

    While attending the air show, DeSantis signed a wide-ranging transportation package (SB 1662) that in part required the transportation department to develop a plan for advanced air mobility with the Department of Commerce. The law also required advances in aviation technology to be included into the annual transportation work program.

    The joint department plan also is aimed at identifying “corridors of need and opportunities for industry growth.”

    In September, the Federal Aviation Administration launched a pilot program to advance the approval of air taxis that will involve at least five public-private partnerships with state and local governments to promote safe usage of VTOL aircraft.

    Facing industry pressure, the FAA in January updated guidelines for the design of vertiport facilities, in part putting them in the existing category of heliports. A year ago, the FAA issued a final rule for qualifications and training of advanced air mobility instructors and pilots.

    Attempts to establish regulations and oversight of the industry have struggled to gain traction in the Florida Legislature over the past few years. Lawmakers in 2024 allowed the state Department of Commerce to consider applications for money under a new Supply Chain Innovation Grant Program for efforts to develop vertiports.

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    Once green-lighted from the federal government, the aircrafts would be expected to provide short air transport ‘like an Uber’

    Florida Republican Ryan Chamberlin filed similar legislation for consideration earlier this year but it failed to pass

    The actor, producer (and former rapper) is the newest celeb to call the Sunshine State home



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    Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
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  • Two ‘Flying Cars’ Collide During Air Show Rehearsal in China

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    Two “flying cars” collided on Tuesday during an air show rehearsal in China, injuring one of the pilots, according to a report from CNN.

    The incident happened at the Changchun Air Show in Jilin, China, where two XPeng AeroHT aircraft collided midair, forcing one of them to the ground. The other vehicle was able to land safely, according to Electrek, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

    The company told CNN that the crash was the result of “insufficient spacing” and one of the flying vehicles “sustained fuselage damage and caught fire upon landing.” The condition of the injured pilot is unknown and XPeng didn’t immediately respond to questions emailed Wednesday.

    Videos posted to social media appear to show one of the vehicles on fire as emergency crews work to put out the blaze.

    Xpeng is a large electric vehicle company in China that has been trying to develop flying vehicles over recent years, with AeroHT becoming a subsidiary in 2020, according to Bloomberg.

    XPeng AeroHT has a few different models of flying vehicles and it’s not immediately clear which model was being flown in this case. Electrek suggests it was the X2, first developed in 2021, though Gizmodo couldn’t independently confirm that info.

    The X2 aircraft is sometimes referred to as a “flying car,” though it doesn’t have wheels and can’t drive on the ground before taking flight. It’s more accurately described as an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle, abbreviated as eVTOL.

    The XPeng X2 electric flying car is displayed during the 32nd Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Tangerang, Greater Jakarta, on July 23, 2025. © Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

    Humanity has been waiting for the flying car for over a century, but it’s never quite panned out. Inventing a flying car isn’t the hard part. We’ve had roadable aircraft since the 1950s, built by inventive tinkerers who got impatient for the future to arrive. But all of the other details that actually go along with bringing a flying car to market are complicated. Piloting them obviously comes with risks, and there are many regulatory hurdles since sane governments don’t want these things just falling out of the sky.

    The flying car always seems about two years away, if you believe the headlines. Even when prognosticators push out the timeline, we’re still bound to be disappointed. For instance, the New York Times promised readers in 2021 that U.S.-based Joby Aviation would have flying cars “in service by 2024,” noting that it would depend on regulatory approval.

    We’re here in 2025, and we’re still waiting on flying cars to go mainstream. Because it’s not just regulatory approval. These kinds of flying vehicles can run into problems, just like people at the Changchun Air Show saw on Tuesday; sometimes it’s technical issues, other times it’s human error. And we just don’t know what caused the crash on Tuesday yet.

    Elon Musk recently floated the idea on X of developing a flying Cybertruck. But we’ve heard that one before, too. Remember when the billionaire said he wanted to build a flying car back in 2014? The newspaper that was interviewing him at the time said you shouldn’t bet against Musk because he “has a reputation for saying things that sound too good to be true – and then making them happen.”

    Well, we’re still waiting.

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    Matt Novak

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  • The FAA Approves the First Flying Car for Take Off | Entrepreneur

    The FAA Approves the First Flying Car for Take Off | Entrepreneur

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    The Jetsons may not be far off from the future.

    The world’s first flying car is one step closer to reality after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved it for Special Airworthiness Certification, allowing the company to begin testing flights this month.

    Alef Aeronautics “Model A” flying car is fully electric and drivable on the streets and in the air, with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. The FAA’s clearance marked the first time a vehicle like this has received legal approval from the US Government.

    “This is one small step for planes, one giant step for cars,” said Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny in a press statement, adding that the certification from the FAA “allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week.”

    Related: Make Millions in Flying Car Stocks Before They Take Off

    How the Model A works

    The Model A has a driving range of 200 miles and a flying range of 110 miles and fits two passengers in its cockpit.

    The sports car has a carbon-fiber body with an open, mesh-like top with four propellers on each side. Once the car takes off vertically, it turns on its side, allowing the propellers to steer it like a massive drone.

    In an interview with CNBC, Dukhovny explained the car is mostly meant to stay on the road but can take flight for short heights and distances to avoid obstacles. He calls those moments “hop” scenarios, “where the customer mainly uses the vehicle as a car, and only ‘hop’ over the obstacles when needed.”

    Long waiting list

    Dukhovny told news outlets last year that customers can expect the flying car to hit the sky by 2025. The sticker price is $300,000.

    Despite the car’s high cost, enthusiasts are already lining up to be the first to own the new flying car.

    In Q4 last year, the company reported that 440 people had placed deposits for the car. Those shelling out $150 joined the general queue, and those who paid $1,500 will get priority access when deliveries begin.

    Alef may be the first flying car on the market, but it won’t be the only one. Boeing and Fiat Chrysler are in a space race to get their cars into the air. Toyota and Uber have been busily testing flying taxi concepts. And Joby Aviation’s stock soared 44% after receiving a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA.

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    Jonathan Small

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  • Skyway Joins Global UTM Association (GUTMA)

    Skyway Joins Global UTM Association (GUTMA)

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    Skyway, a navigation service provider to Urban Air Mobility (UAM) focused around autonomous aircraft, has joined the Global UTM Association to contribute in the international standardization of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) ecosystems.

    Press Release
    –

    Mar 10, 2022


    SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 10, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Skyway is excited to announce its collaboration with the Global UTM Association, better known as GUTMA. With a likely massive drone ecosystem soon to emerge, this collaboration proves timely in its ability to provide the fundamental building blocks of the ever-evolving and technologically-based consumer market. 

    Skyway, an air traffic navigation Provider of Services for Urban Air Mobility (PSU), is on a mission to provide the most advanced secure aviation data exchange for autonomous aircraft, Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) systems, vertiport operations, and government agencies. GUTMA acts as a representative for organizations within the UTM market in order to foster a global ecosystem within the industry. Together, these organizations will work to further global standardization for advanced air traffic systems. This will ensure the development and deployment harmonization of products and services that will benefit all stakeholders globally.

    “At this juncture, it is important for all urban air mobility businesses to collaborate in structuring the ecosystem. Standardization is going to be critical for business scalability across many nations.” – Clifford Cruz, CEO of Skyway

    “GUTMA represents organizations involved in innovative drone services and smart mobility solutions enabled by services that keep drone operations at all altitudes safe and efficient. It engages in impactful research and development and in technical, regulatory and political processes to foster a global ecosystem in a fair global drone services market.” – GUTMA Mission Statement

    GUTMA supports a federated system for UTM services and fair UTM and drone services markets. It works to identify the processes that contribute to its objectives and will cooperate in impactful research and development, technical, regulatory, and political processes in a constructive and authoritative way. GUTMA is a global association open to both private and public organizations, and it is recognized as the most representative and effective association for the global drone services industry.

    GUTMA’s board of directors brings together many industry leaders from Wing, DroneHub, Skyward/Verizon, Amazon, Airservices Australia, NEC, Airbus & FOCA. 

    ________

    Skyway is an air traffic navigation service provider for autonomous aircraft and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) systems. They provide aircraft conflict resolutions, enhance adherence to federal, state, and local regulations, and provide additional emergency services as a Provider of Services for UAM (PSU).  

    GUTMA is a collaborative UTM organization with the basis of safe drone activities rooted in a digital and automated traffic management system. They promote cost-effective drone and UTM services in fair and competitive markets. 

    — END —

    460 Redwood Hwy Suite 16-506 San Rafael, CA 94903

    Email: info@goskyway.com | Website: goskyway.com

    Source: Skyway Technologies Corp.

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