HAIL A CAB

Watch This Chinese Flying Taxi Take Flight Above Dubai

It has a top speed of 80 mph.

It seems like startups and entrepreneurs have been hyping up flying taxis for years now—with little to actually show for it. However, one Chinese company has unveiled a flying car design that they’ve proven can take off and zoom you to your destination faster than any Uber.

The XPeng X2, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle from EV firm XPeng Inc, soared in the skies of the United Arab Emirates city during a test flight on Monday. While the flight was uncrewed, the company said that they conducted a manned flight in July 2021.

Watch the action for yourself below:

Capable of traveling at a walloping 80 mph, the eVTOL would be able to come pick you up and fly you high above the plebs wallowing away in their cars amidst traffic below. While no cost information has been released for the XPeng X2, fellow eVTOL startup Lilium estimated that a flight from Manhattan to JFK International Airport would run you about $70 for a 10 minute flight on a similar machine. That’s not bad considering some Uber and Lyft costs—especially during surge hours.

The XPeng X2 isn’t the first flying car to be tested (and it certainly won’t be the last) but its successful flight in Dubai gives an exciting glimpse at the future of urban travel. However, eVTOL companies still need to overcome some big hurdles plaguing its industry from widespread adoption: battery life, safety, and general hesitancy among people to get into experimental flying devices.

So it’ll still likely be many years before you can grab a flying taxi to work. Once we can, though, we’ll be able to get to our next destination as the crow flies—and that sure as hell beats waiting around in traffic.

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Tony Ho Tran

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