PARIS, FRANCE — Paris is working hard to have a flying taxi service ready by the start of the Paris Olympics in 2024. Here are the details:
Bloomberg reports that Paris is about to start testing electric air taxis and plans to have a fully functioning air taxi service by the start of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The flying electric taxis will be tested at a hub outside Paris, in an area called Pontoise. The city hopes to create two dedicated flight paths to ferry passengers for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
One route will carry passengers via Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports, while the second will travel between two suburbs southwest of the French capital.
Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the French minister delegate for transport, said in a statement that “the French State is fully committed to the financing, with nearly 25 million euros already provided for the development of flying taxis”.
He added that “all the ingredients for success are there, all that remains is to make it happen.”
In the U.S., a number of cities — including Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando — have already announced similar plans for flying taxis and other airborne urban mobility vehicles.
Germany’s Volocopter is one of the flying taxi manufacturers that’s working on the project. The company claims that a ride in one of its autonomous drones will cost pretty much the same as a trip in a conventional taxi.
SOURCES: Bloomberg, The Hill, Euronews
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-25/paris-plans-electric-flying-taxi-routes-in-time-for-olympics
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/transportation/583482-france-to-test-flying-taxi-routes-ahead-of-2024-summer-olympic
https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/06/23/paris-air-taxis-begin-test-flights-in-run-up-to-2024-olympic-launch .
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