Audi suspends flying car plans

Audi has suspended its flying car plans and says its partnership with Airbus is under review.

In the same week Porsche confirmed it was entering the flying car race with Boeing, sister company Audi said it was working on a fresh direction for urban air mobility, and had stopped all work on the Pop.Up concept co-developed with Airbus.

“At present we are working on a new direction for our urban air mobility activities and have not yet made a decision regarding potential future products,” Audi told Automotive News Europe.

The Pop.Up concept that Audi had invested in combined a pure-electric car platform with a passenger capsule and fully autonomous quadcopter.

Designed for short commutes, the capsule and quadcopter were coneived to journey to a specific location or even fly on to another mode of transport, like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop for high-speed long distance travel.

The Pop.Up had a successful trial flight as a scaled down model during Drone Week in Amsterdam last November.

Despite, that Audi has changed tack on the project.

"We believe it will be a very long time before an air taxi can be serially produced that does not require passengers to change vehicles. In the modular concept of Pop.Up, we were working on a solution with the highest complexity,” the car-maker said.