The movement back into cities has begun and more cities are offering ways to enjoy mobility without the need to utilize the bus, train, subway or taxicabs. While public transportation is still a viable option for most, the movement toward ride sharing and vehicle ownership sharing is becoming more popular in the city. Of course these options are excellent for getting around the city when the typical routes you need to take aren’t covered by the normal public transportation systems. One of the areas that hasn’t been explored for public transportation or ride sharing is the airways in a city.

If you’re familiar with the old cartoon the Jetson’s you’ll know that most of the travel is done in the air with little pod like vehicles as the characters move around their elevated city. It’s still a far cry off for us to be able to have vehicles up in the air with major traffic flying around but one company has decided the airways around the city are where we can make the most used of mobility and save the troubles of traveling along the ground in the congested city streets.

Airbus has come up with a concept vehicle that is being called Pop Up. This new vehicle is a possible ride sharing vehicle that can both travel on the ground and fly in the air. This new vehicle is a small autonomous pod that can sit on a four-wheel chassis and travel along the ground when you need to move around on the city streets but also be able to lift off of the pod and move around when the four rotor drone-style turbine wings come and pick the pod up to fly it around the city to the destination desired.

Currently the airspace in a city has been underutilized as a mobility option for many travelers and that will most likely continue to be the case for the next seven to ten years, but the thought that a company can offer mobility vial roadways and air travel inside a city is extremely impressive. Airbus has been looking for a great way to offer a flying car, which this wouldn’t be, but it would be something close to being a flying car and a flying pod at the same time. This new Pop Up system could use AI in the platform to make it easier for you to get where you need to go.

Will this new Pop Up system become a reality? It certainly can, but when is more of the real question for this vehicle. Many predicted we wouldn’t have autonomous vehicles for several years, but it seems that we are on the verge of a breakthrough in the arena of autonomous technology which could lead into the AI needed for this type of an Airbus system. Even if you don’t think this system could ever be offered, you should check out this video and check out what’s being proposed for this new system that may be a decade away.