• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    TL;DR: It failed to launch because it was delayed for a few reasons.

    But just two months later, Hoke started expressing doubts in German media. After being rejected for a state loan, the company was facing the prospect of insolvency “in the foreseeable future” if its shareholders would not agree to more financing, he told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

    By late July, it was clear that Volocopter’s plans for the Paris Olympics were being scaled back, even as the company claimed its immediate money problems had been solved. “It’s a technological advance that could be of use,” transport minister Patrice Vergriete insisted, acknowledging the flying taxis might not be able to welcome any passengers in time for the Olympics. Publicly, Volocopter was careful not to credit the public backlash with the setback, instead blaming an American supplier for “not [being] able to provide what it had promised,” as well as its failure to win approval from the EU Aviation Safety Authority to operate commercially.

    Sounds like the project isn’t abandoned though. Flying cars are still a bit impractical at the moment, but they are quite futuristic and sci-fi, and the technology is improving.

    • ladicius@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The general stance in Germany about this shit is “more noise, more pollution and much more danger just to move some rich a-holes around”.

      It’s not favoured over here.

  • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Flying cars already exist. They’re called helicopters, and there’s a reason they aren’t affordable to normal people for regular transportation.