Take your mobile phone and enter that cool app. Have you already done it? Now ask her to send you a Pop.Up at home. Has arrived? Then go up, relax and indicate your destination, that this vehicle will take care of taking you … by land or air.
Such a scene could come true in the not too distant future. The aerospace company Airbus and the design and engineering firm Italdesign of Turin have developed the Pop.Up, a prototype of an autonomous electric vehicle designed to alleviate the traffic of large cities.
Its operation will be very simple: passengers – admit two – will reserve their service through an app through which the transfer will also be paid. The vehicle's artificial intelligence platform will suggest the best route and mode of transport, on the tarmac or in the air. Yes, because Pop.Up is a composite vehicle that rolls and flies. And all without a pilot of flesh and blood.
Transform and go!
The revolutionary device is made up of a chassis with wheels to which a module measuring 2.6 meters long, 1.4 meters high and 1.5 meters wide is attached. In that case it works like a car. But this module also connects to a propeller with eight rotors that carry it through the air. When the ticket reaches its destination, the Pop.Up recomposes itself and looks for its recharging station until a new order from a customer.
Image: Airbus / Italdesign
More technology news at Muy Interesante 432 (May 2017), now on your kiosk.
