An Australian startup called Alauda came out of stealth mode this week to announce its plans to host the world’s first “flying car” race in 2019. It built its own scaled-down prototype, a racecar-shaped quadcopter called the Alauda Mark 1 Airspeeder, that it plans on testing in 2018. And naturally it’s taken to Kickstarter to raise money to fund all its efforts.
It’s a twist on the typical story we hear these days about flying cars. While most engineers and developers think the only possible use case for these vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs) — which are really just oversized drones, when you think about it — is some sort of aerial taxi service, Alauda is going in a different direction. Its focus is on speed and sport. Its goal, in its own words, is to build “the Ferrari of the sky.”
“Since there’s been cars, there’s been motorsport,” Alauda CEO Matt Pearson said in his Kickstarter video. “And any type of vehicle, anything we build, we want to race. Anything that makes us go faster, fly higher, we want to compete.”
Pearson believes that a focus on racing and competition will push the technology forward. It’s a similar philosophy that you hear from those involved in the Formula E racing series, drone racing, and robot fighting competitions. What better way to attract talent and disrupt technology than to make a sport of it?
According to Pearson, Alauda has been working in stealth mode for two years, and is now ready to take things public. The company has been working with Australian authorities to ensure its vehicle complies with air traffic regulations. And it plans to demonstrate its first human-piloted flight sometime in January 2018.
Alauda’s prototype vehicle is a single-seater that will be powered using a propulsion technology similar to the world’s most famous electric car company. According to the startup (emphasis ours):
The Alauda Mark 1 is an electric, low-altitude aircraft shaped like a race car. Once completed, it will be capable of carrying a single pilot and reach top speeds of more than 200km/hr. Equipped with four custom 50-megawatt motors, and powered by the same cells used in the battery of a Tesla Model S, the Mark 1 will use robotics and sensors to ensure safety while putting the driver in control of a performance electric aircraft. Not a car and not a plane, the company has lifted the term “Airspeeder” from science fiction to describe the new vehicle category.
But does this qualify as a flying car? I’m not claiming to be the ultimate arbiter on what is and isn’t a flying car — I’m on record against using the term “flying car,” but I’m pretty sure I’ve already lost that battle — but it seems what Alauda is working on is more akin to some of human-piloted drone aircraft that are being developed in Russia and elsewhere. By calling its prototype a “flying car,” it’s clear that Alauda is trying to place itself in the same category as company’s like Kitty Hawk, Airbus, and Uber, all of which are working on some variation of the technology.
There are plenty of skeptics that say flying cars, especially electric-powered aircraft, aren’t worth pursuing. They wonder if the economics work, or if passengers would balk at getting on board a self-flying vehicle. “Obviously, I like flying things,” Elon Musk recently told Bloomberg. “But it’s difficult to imagine the flying car becoming a scalable solution.”
But what about a flying car race? By 2019, we may have our answer.
It’s a twist on the typical story we hear these days about flying cars. While most engineers and developers think the only possible use case for these vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs) — which are really just oversized drones, when you think about it — is some sort of aerial taxi service, Alauda is going in a different direction. Its focus is on speed and sport. Its goal, in its own words, is to build “the Ferrari of the sky.”
“Since there’s been cars, there’s been motorsport,” Alauda CEO Matt Pearson said in his Kickstarter video. “And any type of vehicle, anything we build, we want to race. Anything that makes us go faster, fly higher, we want to compete.”
Pearson believes that a focus on racing and competition will push the technology forward. It’s a similar philosophy that you hear from those involved in the Formula E racing series, drone racing, and robot fighting competitions. What better way to attract talent and disrupt technology than to make a sport of it?
According to Pearson, Alauda has been working in stealth mode for two years, and is now ready to take things public. The company has been working with Australian authorities to ensure its vehicle complies with air traffic regulations. And it plans to demonstrate its first human-piloted flight sometime in January 2018.
Alauda’s prototype vehicle is a single-seater that will be powered using a propulsion technology similar to the world’s most famous electric car company. According to the startup (emphasis ours):
The Alauda Mark 1 is an electric, low-altitude aircraft shaped like a race car. Once completed, it will be capable of carrying a single pilot and reach top speeds of more than 200km/hr. Equipped with four custom 50-megawatt motors, and powered by the same cells used in the battery of a Tesla Model S, the Mark 1 will use robotics and sensors to ensure safety while putting the driver in control of a performance electric aircraft. Not a car and not a plane, the company has lifted the term “Airspeeder” from science fiction to describe the new vehicle category.
But does this qualify as a flying car? I’m not claiming to be the ultimate arbiter on what is and isn’t a flying car — I’m on record against using the term “flying car,” but I’m pretty sure I’ve already lost that battle — but it seems what Alauda is working on is more akin to some of human-piloted drone aircraft that are being developed in Russia and elsewhere. By calling its prototype a “flying car,” it’s clear that Alauda is trying to place itself in the same category as company’s like Kitty Hawk, Airbus, and Uber, all of which are working on some variation of the technology.
There are plenty of skeptics that say flying cars, especially electric-powered aircraft, aren’t worth pursuing. They wonder if the economics work, or if passengers would balk at getting on board a self-flying vehicle. “Obviously, I like flying things,” Elon Musk recently told Bloomberg. “But it’s difficult to imagine the flying car becoming a scalable solution.”
But what about a flying car race? By 2019, we may have our answer.