Cadillac wants to fly people in electric drones
General Motors shared some futuristic concept vehicles, including a sleek Cadillac passenger drone, on Tuesday in a classic CES move.
As part of its Cadillac Halo portfolio, a shiny, silver and black self-driving shuttle, and a matching passenger drone were introduced. Both are just ideas with no production plans — yet.
The VTOL flying car (that's the term used for vertical take-off and landing vehicles or passenger drones) is GM's first design in aerial mobility. It's an idea for personal air travel that doesn't require a trip to the airport.
"It's a concept for when time is of the essence," GM's Michael Simcoe said at the event.
Intended for short flights, Cadillac envisions take-off and landing pads on downtown rooftops for its passenger drone. So you can hop into the drone to catch a meeting across town.
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The conceptual design for the autonomous electric drone includes four rotors and a 90 kWh motor. No pilot necessary.
Even if Cadillac's futuristic ideas are just musings on what transportation could eventually look like, other companies are moving along with plans for flying taxis. Uber recently sold its flying cars division to Joby Aviation as the startup develops an electric air taxi.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
