Are flying taxis coming? Sooner than you think, and to a select few
Global News
Electric air taxis can start plying the skies by 2028, according to a regulatory timeline laid out by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration this month.
From his suite on the 23rd floor of the Fairmont Dubai, Fethi Chebil surveys the luxury cars and driverless metro line unfurling to the horizon.
“I can see the future,” says the Quebec-based CEO and founder of VPorts, which designs terminals for flying taxis.
Chebil is referring with a wink to Dubai’s Museum of the Future, but he might just as well be describing the mode of transport he envisions high above the roads and rails of the desert city and beyond: flying cars.
Air taxis, long hyped as the next giant leap in short-haul passenger transport, are coming closer to a vertiport near you — even as skepticism deepens over their ability to change commuter behaviour and emissions output, and overcome questions of safety, both real and perceived.
Electric air taxis can start plying the skies by 2028, according to a regulatory timeline laid out by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration this month. Some manufacturers have 2025 as their target, such as Silicon Valley’s Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation.
No longer confined to the silver screen in classics as far back as 1927’s Metropolis, aerial ferries now take form and flight in more than 700 prototypes and designs for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) by some 350 companies, according to the Vertical Flight Society.
The whirly machines carry the promise of delivering people and goods across congested urban and suburban areas and between nearby cities. But headwinds around technology, regulation and investment remain, with Canada lagging behind some of its peers on policy. And whether aerial vehicles can move beyond a sleek slice of the ultrarich and medical and cargo niches in the near term seems increasingly questionable.
Most eVTOLs resemble an oversized drone, sporting a halo of small rotors around a passenger pod — some sporting wings — and taking off and touching down like a helicopter. Drawing on lithium-ion batteries, they are cleaner, quieter and — eventually — cheaper to fly and maintain than a chopper powered by jet fuel.
The federal government is appealing a January ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal that upheld the use of the emergencies law breached Charter rights.
The province announced the move on Tuesday afternoon, suggesting it would drive local tourism and economic growth by boosting attendance at some festivals.
Hundreds of organizations across the province are calling on the government to scrap its proposed constitution. Critics say the process has been flawed from the start.
Canada's privacy commissioner said the agency agreed to measures to ensure international sports bodies only use highly sensitive personal information for anti-doping purposes.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said the Canadian Armed Forces 'are not involved in the prosecution of this war' while underscoring that position is not going to change.
Police allege hundreds of cannabis items had been packaged to resemble 'ordinary' products, such as candy, potato chips, cookies, chocolate bars and cereal.
Zameer was cleared in the death of a Toronto police officer two years ago after initially being charged with first-degree murder.
The province is in the process of overhauling how freedom of information works in Ontario to retroactively exempt all calls and texts from the premier and others.
The municipality said use of the vehicles had been paused because during the winter snow is plowed onto the surfaces that are used for parking the e-scooters and e-bikes.
Nearly 310,000 customers were knocked off the grid in Quebec this morning, with environment Canada forecasting winds as strong as 90 kilometres an hour in parts of the province.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said 'numerous countries' had told him they were 'on the way' to help the U.S. with the Strait of Hormuz.
Ontario Provincial Police are warning the pubic of fraudsters who are impersonating officers and using spoofed phone number that appear legitimate.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed Tuesday, one day after powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country and upended air travel in multiple cities.