#1 Deeptech Analysed - Revolutionising Air Travel, a look into the future of AirTaxis and UAVs & Holoride, the next frontier of immersive entertainment
What's happening this week?
AirTaxis and UAVs, would they fly among us ?
By Gael Amouyal
What is going on?
In the coming years we will see new kind of aircrafts in the sky, however two of them will change our life style completely. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and AirTaxis open a new era in the aviation industry.
What does it mean?
UAVs already took-off and they will soon provide services in many domaines like deliveries, informations, security, environment and health. Last February 2022, the UAV Hermes 900 from Elbit Systems received for the first time in the world a full civil aircraft certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel. This UAV will be used by the Swiss Army for border patrol missions and it might be flying next to you on your next trip to Geneva.
With the AirTaxis, the dream of flying cars is seating next to us. Traveling from JFK to Manhattan in less than 20 minutes with no traffic jam won’t be a problem anymore. Volocopter and Lilium are two startups which are well advanced into the certification process and have a good chance to get it through. They have both very different designs but they are fully electrical. Clearly, the ecological trend made its way into the aviation industry.
Why does it matter?
We are at the beginning of a new transportation revolution, everyone will be affected by this new technology. The applications of autonomous aircraft are endless like air shuttles, private transport, cargo transport, air ambulance, deliveries, inspection, mapping, surveillance and special mission, among others.
💸For Markets: Growing !
The global AirTaxis market is expected to grow from $6.73 billion in 2021 to $18.92 billion in 2026, while the UAV market grows from $26.2 billion in 2022 to $38.3 billion by 2027. In march 2020 Dassault Systèmes estimated the growing need for autonomous aircraft to an estimated of 1.3 billion passengers over 20 years. However the whole certification process will take time and some companies will fall because of it. The key for success is a good certification process to ensure production.
🧑🏿🤝🧑🏻For Society: Between safety and services.
Safety of flight has always been the most important parameter in a civil aircraft design. UAVs and AirTaxis should be able to communicate with their environment as well as to be adaptive to any kind of situations such as weather, traffics and malfunctions. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in collaboration with the industry are working hard to create new regulations to solve this safety challenge.
It is why regulators are requesting intensive flight tests and simulations for certification. Last September 2022 Volocopter was under flight test to integrate their AirTaxis into civil airspace where different avoidance maneuvers were tested. One of the test was to make sure that the AirTaxis could securely manage a forced diversion due to an unexpected unavailability of the final approach and takeoff area.
🔮What’s next: Don’t miss your flight !
Like in the automobile, autonomous aircrafts are now a reality and are already flying. The optimist timeline to see fully functional AirTaxis is end of 2024 but , in my point of view it will be more likely to see the first commercial AirTaxis around 2026. So it is time to takeoff and follow the main actors of this sector.
Holoride: turning vehicles into moving theme parks
By Lirone Samoun
What is going on?
Holoride is a German start-up that aims to revolutionize the way we spend our time in the car. The company creates an advanced virtual reality experience known as “extended reality (XR)” for passengers. It includes elements of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. During a trip, a passenger puts on a virtual reality headset which then syncs with the data of the car to allow the passenger be immersed and “feel” what is happening on the screen. As the car moves, the virtual reality content adapts and moves with the same motion and speed, creating a new dynamic in experiencing virtual reality.
What does it mean?
Holoride uses travel route and time navigation data with vehicle data (including steering, speed and, acceleration) that links to a selected virtual world/experience that the passenger selects. It connects content with data points from the vehicle in real time, including physical feedback, like acceleration and steering, traffic data, as well as travel route and time. This real-time car synchronization creates a virtual experience that can reduce motion sickness in some people.
Why does it matter?
💸For markets: a new paradigm ?
Today the company seems to create a new paradigm as “mobility as a service”, which becomes even stronger with the emergence of autonomous vehicles. In the near future, vehicles will become mobile activity spaces.
Time is one of the most precious resources. Like everything else, it can be used positively or negatively by the passenger who wants to use this technology or the company that wants to use it as a new communication channel. For the moment, holoride is the only one on the market to offer entertainment solutions based on virtual and mixed reality.
🧑🏿🤝🧑🏻For society: new in-car experience for the user.
The technology has the power to change backseat entertainment, opening up a new layer of immersion in games, educational content, and many more use cases. Holoride fills that gap by providing a whole new in-car experience for the user. The company even proposes to developers a package offering many tools to create their own immersive experiences.
This technology could allow any creator to create his own universe, his own games, his own educational contents and, in a general way, propose a new communication channel for travelers.
Companies could use this technology to propose new advertising formats, or a whole lot of content that could change the way the company communicates with its customers. The point that could put off some people is the fact that the passengers may isolate themselves without interacting with other people in the car.
🔮What’s Next: now for Audi and soon for other cars
Holoride just released their Pioneers’ Pack, an in-car entertainment platform for some Audi models. The add-on package combines a high-end VR space with a moving car to create an immersive experience. Passengers will be whisked off into a variety of games and apps that all use live ride info to bring content to life in a completely new media paradigm.
Despite amazing advances in automotive technology over the last few decades, passenger experience and in-car entertainment has remained largely the same. Holoride seems to be the first one to have the willingness to elevate that stale experience and redefine how people spend their time on the go.
To be continued.
Deeptech weekly must-reads
Lab-grown meat is here but will it last ? Even though it reduces green-house emissions and diseases, it is by no means a cheap system and people are not ready to give real meat away https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/28/1062327/lab-grown-meat/
We now can move and navigate without GPS using 3D Quantum accelerometer
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2344551-first-3d-quantum-accelerometer-could-let-ships-navigate-without-gps/A new system called ReSkin enables robots help people do the household tasks
https://studyfinds.org/robots-sense-of-touch/A new battery-free and light-powered pacemaker will reduce pain and discomfort in patients
https://www.futurity.org/light-powered-pacemaker-heart-patients-2821792/Wyoming is building the world’s largest carbon removal project to pull out CO2 out of the air https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/23/23353054/carbon-removal-project-bison-wyoming-direct-air-capture
✨ That’s all for today. Thanks for reading ! Stay tuned for our next week edition for more.
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