Should we walk or hail an air taxi?

Since the second motorist got stuck in traffic behind the first motorist, commuters have dreamed of flying cars.

Though it seems like an impossible technology, the Federal Aviation Administration recently published its official safety regulations for air taxis, and regular rides are closer than ever.

Joby Aviation is still working on a hydrogen-powered vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTOL), and Archer Aviation just signed a ~$500m deal to sell 100 electric VTOLs to Japan’s Soracle Corp.:

• Dubbed Midnight, they’re more like helicopters than cars.
• They can fit four passengers and a pilot, and travel 100 miles at up to 150 mph.

Soracle’s plan is to launch the air taxis “in cities where existing ground transportation is constrained by traffic or geographic barriers.”

Japan does…

… have notable geographic barriers, plus varying climates and a propensity for earthquakes and tsunamis, but the country has spent more than a century addressing those issues with trains.

• A regular shinkansen, AKA bullet train, goes up to 200 mph (though some can go faster).
• They can carry 1k+ people across the length of the country (which is a lot more than 100 miles).
• Sometimes Brad Pitt is there.

So what is the market for air taxis if the country spending $500m on them arguably doesn’t need them?

The answer is may be just helicopter aficionados, but the industry better figure it out, because German air taxi company Lilium just announced that it’s going into insolvency, per The Verge.

If these companies take too long to get off the ground, commuters might get desperate and start taking cars everywhere.