Future Mode: Are flying cars taking off?

Whenever humans have imagined fantastical technology, they have looked to the sky – be it the ancient Greeks writing about Icarus flying too close to the sun or Leonardo da Vinci doodling flying machines. 

The age of powered flight has brought the sky within reach – and supercharged our imaginations for what we might do next, from sci-fi to productivity to commerce. 

In this episode of Future Mode, we look at what's been termed the low-altitude economy – and scan the horizon for what happens next…

Time for take-off 

For decades, kids (and some adults) have dreamed of getting into a flying car – the kind you see in movies. CGTN's Wang Tianyu was just the same – except that recently, in Guangzhou, his dream came true. 

He climbed into an eVTOL – standing for electrical vertical take off and landing, which explains its selling point. Compared to helicopters, it is smaller, quieter, cheaper – and much safer. 

That was comforting news for Tianyu, as he climbed he realized there was no joystick, no driving – just the machine and him. And just like that, he was airborne.

The eVTOL's 16 propellers keep it pretty stable, although Tianyu reports "there is still some noise and vibration, like riding in an old bus."

His nerves suggest it may take a little while for the public to get used to this sort of travel, but eVTOLs could make life easier – reducing ground-based traffic and getting people from A to B in super-quick time. 

It's also a key part of China's low-altitude economy. The term usually refers to airborne economic activity below an altitude of one thousand meters – which is still pretty high: for reference, the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, tops out at 828 meters above ground.

Farming applications

The low-altitude economy is not just about moving people – those thousand meters contain plenty of opportunities.  

And while Tianyu was buzzing around in the skies above Guangzhou, his colleague Michael Marillier was down on the farm in Liverpool, England with British businessman Rob Pearson.

As CEO of Autospray Systems, Pearson sells drones, and in this case it's one built by Chinese firm XAG. Working on a small farm outside the northern city, it's cleaning tunnels made from polythene.  

"It's all about growing power – the sun is your growing power," Pearson said. "You put your lovely clean polythene in the first year, and you get a bumper harvest.

"The next year, you've got algae growing, it slows your crop down, and eventually you scrap your polythene. But if you can clean your polythene, it's of huge benefit to the farmer, and also to the environment, because you don't need new polythene."

Flight to normality

Not everyone is on the bleeding edge like Tianyu, and it can take time for a niche industry to reach the mainstream. How soon could eVTOLs become normal – just a part of daily life?

"I believe that within the next two years, urban eVTOL air routes will become fairly common," says He Tianxing. "Some cities are already geared for commercial flights."

He is vice president of EHang, one of a few Chinese firms to have been testing this technology for years. While eVTOLs may look complicated, nearly 80 percent of their components are used in electric vehicles – and China already has strong supply chains in that industry.

All of that means the sector could develop really fast. In fact, experts predict that by 2030, China will have over 100,000 eVTOLs. And they won't just be taxis – they could deliver goods, rescue people in danger, and even fight fires.

If that happens, China's low-altitude economy will grow like never before. It was worth around $200 billion in 2025, and officials say it could reach nearly $500 billion within a decade.

Boosting productivity

The effects in the UK won't be as huge – it's a smaller economy, and almost certainly a later adopter. But analysts still think thousands of British farmers will be using drones within five years. 

Their uses could be manifold – not just cleaning polytunnels, but monitoring crops and, in some cases, planting seeds. They could even help grow forests, by dropping hundreds of seeds in just a few minutes. 

In all, according to analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers, drones could add $2 billion to the British economy by cutting costs and improving productivity. 

So while it might seem like the stuff of sci-fi, the low-altitude economy is coming soon – and taking productivity skywards.