On Tuesday, General Motors presented a futuristic flying Cadillac—a self-driving vehicle. This vehicle is expected to take off and land vertically and carry the passengers above the streets and through the air.
A senior GM executive described the concept as “reimagining the future of personal transportation”.
Flying Cadillac: The future of transportation?
The single-passenger Cadillac is technically, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone. This means the Cadillac will be able to travel from urban rooftop to urban rooftop at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. It is completely autonomous and all-electric, with a 90kW motor, and a GM Ultium battery pack. And, no pilot is necessary. It also comes with an ultra-lightweight body with four pairs of rotors.
Chief Executive Mary Barra, presented the flying Cadillac in an animated video as part of a virtual keynote presentation. It comes along with a family-friendly Cadillac electric shuttle. Mike Simcoe, GM design chief, introduced the concepts in the CES video. Also, he described the VTOL as “the Cadillac of urban air mobility”. “VTOL is key to GM’s vision for a multimodal future,” he said.
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Features to be expected
Described as “arriving soon,” the autonomous Cadillac shuttle features a boxy silhouette. It recalls the Cruise Origin which is also designed by Simcoe’s team. Apart from this, the video features fore and aft sliding doors and a panoramic glass roof. The cabin in the Cadillac has wraparound lounge-like seating, plus biometric sensors, voice control, and hand gesture recognition.
GM shares were up 5.8% to $47.62 in early afternoon trade. Moreover, GM declined to disclose further details on the same.
Even though Cadillac’s futuristic ideas are just musings on what transportation could eventually look like, other companies are moving along with plans for inventing flying taxis. Previously other automakers—Toyota Motor, Hyundai Motor, and Geely Automobile, have been known to show the concept of aerial vehicles as part of their future projects.
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