Hyundai joins ‘flying car’ race

Hyundai is entering the race of ‘flying car’, revealing a new head of its newly formed Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Division. The announcement came on Monday about “urban air mobility,” an emerging field covering such services as drone deliveries and independent air taxis.

Jaiwon Shin, who was once working in Nasa, will be tasked with “developing smart mobility products within the aviation industry,” as the company’s press release says.

Shin who is the head of the department, recently led the aeronautics research mission Directorate at NASA. Shin shaped the agency’s aeronautics research and took care of the agency’s development strategy for over 11 years.

“Having worked on cutting-edge aviation research and development at NASA for 30 years, I am very excited and humbled by the opportunity to now shape urban air mobility strategy at Hyundai Motor Group,” Shin says.

The announcement came on Monday about “urban air mobility,” an emerging field covering such services as drone deliveries and independent air taxis.

Recently, Korean automaker announced a $4 billion autonomous driving joint venture. The announcement from Hyundai Motor Group came just a week after South Korean automakers made their plan public.

“The new team at Hyundai will develop core technologies that will establish the company as a driving force in urban air mobility, a sector that is expected to grow into a market worth $1.5 trillion within the next 20 years,” Shin said.

It is still unknown how much the Hyundai is going to spend on the new division, but in February it shared would invest a total of 2.4 trillion won ($2 billion) in futuristic technology.

But Hyundai has hurdles to overcome in its way. The automaker will be competing with global players who have already made significant investments in the sector. Uber aims to start demonstration flights in 2020 and making commercial flights available in 2023. Airbus and Boeing are also developing their own passenger drones and flying cars, aiming to launch services anytime before 2020.

Some of the richest cities in the world like Dubai are openly embracing technology. Traffic has been a big problem for residents of the city. The city’s transit authority wants at least 25 percent of all of its passenger travel to be autonomous by as early as 2030.