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Boeing and Porsche are developing an electric 'flying car'
They agreed to design a concept and build a prototype to test.
Boeing has teamed up with luxury sports carmaker Porsche to develop a concept for an electric vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) -- in other words, they're working on a "flying car." The companies' engineers will even collaborate to build and test a prototype based on the design they'll come up with, which will most likely be a premium VTOL model to stay true to Porsche's brand.
Their collaboration will also look into urban air mobility as a whole and won't just focus on the development of a vehicle. Porsche's announcement says they'll create an international team as part of the Memorandum of Understanding they signed. That team will address the various aspects of urban air mobility, as well as investigate the market potential for and possible use cases of premium flying vehicles.
"This collaboration builds on our efforts to develop a safe and efficient new mobility ecosystem, and provides an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand," Boeing VP Steve Nordlund said in a statement.
As Reuters noted, Boeing will be competing with perpetual rival Airbus SE, which already started testing its own VTOL vehicle last year. Larry Page-backed Kitty Hawk also recently unveiled a single-person VTOL that's a hundred times quieter than a helicopter.
