Florida officials are preparing now for the future of flying cars, the transit chief said.
Florida is laying the groundwork to usher in the era of flying cars, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Jared Perdue[1] said.
The state is developing a vision for an aerial highway and expanding its state-of-the-art FDOT SunTrax[2] testing facility in Polk County’s Auburndale that was originally built for autonomous vehicle testing, Perdue said.
“You could essentially be looking at something that was envisioned in ‘The Jetsons,’ or maybe ‘The Fifth Element,’” Perdue said. “You’ve got all these vehicles flying around. How do you control that air traffic? What are the origins and destinations? What type of technology public infrastructure is going to be needed?”
Perdue gave an update on the state’s infrastructure preparations for the new mode of transportation as he spoke Monday at the Future of Florida Forum[3], which is the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s[4] annual meeting.
Gov. Ron DeSantis first spoke of people being transported by vertiports from Orlando to Tampa at a press conference earlier this month[5]. Florida leaders were pitched on the concept during their international trade mission[6] to the Paris Air Show this Summer. Officials described it as an electric, aerial ride that could travel relatively short distances with a vertical takeoff resembling a helicopter minus the propeller.
Perdue expanded on the behind-the-scenes work to help the technology take off, “no pun intended,” he joked.
“We’ve already rolled out guidelines for local governments to start thinking about how they’re going to handle zoning,” Perdue said. “If you look at the future 20 to 30 years from now, we could have thousands of these things flying. We need to start preparing for that. What does that look like? … This will be a much bigger load on conventional air traffic control than anything.”
DeSantis and Perdue haven’t given a timeline when the aerial rides could start taking off or details how much a ride could cost.
“We want to make sure these companies have a business climate where they can have speed to market and become profitable as quickly as possible,” Perdue said.
Also at the meeting, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds[7] and Chamber CEO Mark Wilson[8] gave remarks. The Future of Florida Forum continues Tuesday.
References
- ^ Jared Perdue (www.fdot.gov)
- ^ SunTrax (suntraxfl.com)
- ^ Future of Florida Forum (www.flchamber.com)
- ^ Florida Chamber of Commerce’s (www.flchamber.com)
- ^ at a press conference earlier this month (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ during their international trade mission (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ Byron Donalds (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ Mark Wilson (floridapolitics.com)