Audi, Airbus deep-six plans to develop two-in-one flying car

Part car and part helicopter, the Pop.Up concept Audi and Airbus jointly presented at the 2017 Geneva auto show will remain a one-off design study. The German carmaker announced it has canceled the project due to the dauntingly complex technology needed to make it a reality.

While the list of automakers and tech companies developing a vehicle that falls under the broad flying taxi umbrella grows monthly, Audi and Airbus tried blazing a different path by creating a modular, do-it-all commuter capable — in theory, at least — of flying and driving. The Pop.Up concept and a follow-up design study named Pop.Up Next (pictured) were both built around a pod-like cabin that could be ride on an electric, skateboard-like chassis in terrestrial traffic, or could be latched onto by a sci-fi-like arrangement of rotors to go airborne. The two-in-one approach to commuting was innovative, but it drove more than a few nails into the project’s coffin.

“We believe it will be a very long time before an air taxi can be serially produced that does not require passengers to change vehicles. In the modular concept of Pop.Up, we were working on a solution with the highest complexity,” an Audi spokesperson told Automotive News Europe. 

The German firm isn’t consigning its flying ambitions to the attic. It will look for other, presumably simpler ways to enter this burgeoning segment of the industry, and it might leave Airbus behind, according to the same report. The plane and helicopter manufacturer hasn’t commented on the news; it’s independently working on other urban-focused projects internally, including an electric, single-passenger model named Vahana and a bigger vehicle called CityAirbus.

The news comes after Audi sister company Porsche announced plans to explore a collaboration with Airbus nemesis Boeing in the flying taxi sector. The two firms plan to test their first prototype by 2020, Autoblog learned, and the data gathered from it will determine whether the project continues.