Half a year before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Dirk Hoke, CEO of Volocopter, was still full of hope.[We’re] letting people know this isn’t science fiction,” he told WIRED in February, touting the flying taxi as a sustainable, unthreatening, and still mode of transportation that would become the norm in just a few years. “It works, and it starts this year.”
Volocopter’s VoloCity would be free to fly, with three routes initially planned through Paris. Even when those plans were unveiled, Hoke had yet to fly one of his vehicles. “I’d love to,” he said, “but so far, under the regulations, only test pilots are allowed.” Still, his tone was hopeful. “We hope to start flying in July, and then we’ll start with passengers, probably in August.”
But just two months later, Hoke began expressing doubts in German media. After an application for a state loan was rejected, the company faced the prospect of default “in the foreseeable future” if its shareholders did not agree to more financing, he said. he said Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
At the same time, backlash against the project was mounting, with critics complaining that VoloCity (which could carry only one passenger at a time) was more like a private plane than any form of public transport. “We don’t need them,” Lazarski says. He believes that flying taxis would create visual and noise pollution in the skies above Paris without providing anything in return for its residents. “This is not mass transit,” he says, arguing that the vehicles would be used only by the most privileged. “They are for business people.”
Lazarski was not alone in her concerns. Seventeen thousand people signed petition So far, politicians responsible for Paris have also joined the opposition calling for the project to be abandoned, pitting the capital’s politicians against the entire region and government.
Dan Lert, Deputy Mayor for Green Transition called VoloCity is an “absurd gadget” that “will only benefit a few ultra-rich people.” His colleague David Belliard, deputy mayor in charge of mobility, agreed. “It’s useless, anti-ecological, very expensive,” he said. he said in July.
Volocopter, however, defended its product as affordable. “We feel strongly that as we get into the hundreds and thousands of these vehicles, we can easily get to a price for an equivalent seat that’s just a little bit more than a taxi on the street,” Hoke said in February.
But other flying taxi executives acknowledged that it will take time to get to that point, and first there will be a period when the vehicles are intended for the wealthy. “A lot of the initial use cases will be for first- and business-class passengers connecting to flights,” said Michael Cervenka, chief technology officer at British flying taxi company Vertical Aerospace. he said earlier this year.
By delayed July, it became clear that Volocopter’s plans for the Paris Olympics were being scaled back, even as the company said its immediate financial problems had been resolved. “It’s a technological advance that could come in handy,” Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said. he insistedadmitting that the flying taxis may not be able to take any passengers in time for the Olympics. Publicly, Volocopter has been careful not to attribute the failure to the public reaction, instead blaming the US supplier “unable to deliver what it promised” and failure to obtain approval from the European Aviation Safety Authority to conduct commercial operations.
Lazarski doesn’t see the defeat of flying taxis so far as a victory. “It’s a bigger relief,” she says. But for her, the fight isn’t over. As vice president of UFCNA, the French labor union against air pollution, Lazarski is involved in a legal battle against plans to build a vertical port on the Seine River for flying taxis that would take off and land in central Paris. That launch pad has already been approved from the government operate until December. The race for the Olympics may be over. But the dream of flying taxis over Paris is not dead.