HomeMediaUp next: Electric flying car racing

Up next: Electric flying car racing

You read that correctly, company plans to race electric-powered flying cars

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“Electric flying cars are a coming reality that will liberate our cities and answer the long-term mobility challenges we face. Nothing drives technology as fast as competition. The F1 racers of the early 20th century possessed a pioneering spirit we are harnessing today to rapidly accelerate progress.  This seed investment represents a significant leap forward in the next great mobility revolution.” 

— Matt Pearson, founder, Alauda & Airspeeder

And with that statement, Pearson and his companies — Alauda, which plans to produce electric-powered flying cars, and Airspeeder, which will be a racing series for those cars — announced that manned test-flights are scheduled to take place sometime this year and that details on the inaugural racing season will be coming soon.

Pearson also said his Australian-based company has established a commercial base in London.

“Racing,” the companies news release notes, “will rapidly accelerate the development of electric flying cars.”

“Airspeeder delivers on the promise of a future proposed in science fiction and gaming,” the news release adds. “Inspiration from the latter will take the form of a cockpit, furnished with latest augmented reality technology to assist the pilot in navigating the course.”

Pit stops will be part of the races, company says

“Airspeeder will be the most exciting and progressive motor sport on the planet. Elite pilots will use the sky as their playground in intense head-to-head competition. Multiple teams and manufacturers will be provided the hardware by Alauda as a turnkey solution but afforded freedom to set strategy and draft pilots.”

The flying cars built for competition will be called Speeders. 

“Rapid electric pitstops and short, intense head-to-head competition will serve the requirements of a generation, native to Esports.

“Our audiences will be hooked by the visual excitement of close proximity racing, sound tracked by the roar of racing octocopters maneuvering above the most visually arresting landscapes on the planet.”

Rear view of one of the Speeders

The first test flights will take place in the desert near the company headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. 

“The region is rapidly taking its place as a global center of space and aerospace technology with its surrounding deserts the perfect place to test both manned and unmanned flights,” according to the news release.

“We believe in open innovation,” Pearson added. “Looking back to the development of both the car and aeroplane over a century ago, it was sporting competition that drove progress.”

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

9 COMMENTS

  1. This is pie in the sky stuff. I wonder what air traffic controllers would say to this silliness? In major cities, where there is the most congestion and thus “need” for flying cars, there are millions of cars. LA and NY alone have 6.4 and 7.7 MILLION vehicles. Even if just 1/20th of those cars were airborne, can you imagine airspace in LA or NY swarming with hundreds of thousands of cars? What a nightmare. What noise? Oh, and a normal fender bender in a car would likely be fatal in an airborne vehicle….one with even less protection than a car due to its need to be lightweight.

  2. It’s about time. I’m 74 years old and when I was 10 they told me I’d have a flying car by now.
    Liars.
    The problem, of course, is that prop-driven flight is a mechanical paradigm based on Newtonian physics. Apple-falling-from-trees stuff. Zzzzzzz.
    The only way flying cars will work is through the harnessing of electro-magnetic polarization manipulation field energy, which immediately eliminates the air-traffic-control issues others are concerned about.
    I guess I’ll have to wait another 65 years for the next generation’s Elon Musk to figure it all out.
    Of course by then, it will all be autonomous-controlled transportation, which will take the fun out of everything.
    Damn.
    Back to my Prius. At least it still has a steering wheel.

    • Bob- in my direct personal experience, the vast majority of American “drivers” aren’t driving at all. They’re online, they’re texting, they’re fixing make-up or reading the newspaper. Driving? Not so much. The idea that these entitled morons could become airborne terrifies me; I’m a trained (NHRA/IHRA, WERA, SCCA) competition operator. I watch. I do. You turn Amerimorons loose with flying cars, it’s gonna bring a whole new meaning to “death from above”.
      No.
      Oh- btw. I wheel a 2004 Pontiac GTO/Holden Monaro. The 5.7 LS1 is now a 408ci 11.5:1 aftermarket build, with the original #421 cathedral port heads cut, ported/bigger valves/beehive springs for the aftermarket cam/throttle body/ECM; all that happiness feeds a lightweight flywheel & dual disc small diameter clutch attached to an admittedly somewhat agricultural Tremec 6spd rowed by an Australian copy of the B&M Ripshifter. The design of the body means the rear view isn’t- in this thing side mirrors are your best friends. The huge manta ray looking rear wing does look awesome following one, seeing past it? Um, no.
      And I’m 60. You’re too young for a Prius. If yer gonna drive, drive a real car.
      Peace!
      R

  3. Ever drive a Ferrari F-1 360 Modena ? Scary to be hovering on the ground, just think of being 100 feet up with 50 cars next to you on their phones ???

    Apollo 13 this day in time launched 50 years ago today. When you get the nod to go to heaven your only connected by faith.

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