C h a p t e r 1
As urban population centers continue
to expand, ground transportation will
continue to be the primary way people
get from point A to B. However, when time
is of the essence, taking a short hop from
an airport or suburb to a city, or even
from one intracity location to another, via
UAM, will be viable in the very near future.
The ultimate goal is a driverless air taxi
system, with automated recharging, a
perfect safety record, and enough range
for intercity travel. The surrounding
technological ecosystem—motor
technology, energy storage, computing
power, aerodynamics—has developed
rapidly to a point at which UAM is
entirely possible. To that end, multiple
commercial developments are underway,
many of which are collaborative, to ensure
individual electric vertical take-off &
landing (eVTOL) vehicles meet operator
needs.
Developing an eVTOL is, of course,
complex and requires excellence in
multiple disciplines, not least of which
is functional safety. While consumers
are used to traditional airplanes and
helicopters that use combustion engines
THE FUTURE OF ELECTRIC
URBAN AIR MOBILITY (UAM)
VEHICLES
Shawn Meng
Senior Program Manager, System Engineer, Garmin
We are at the dawn of a new era
in avionics. The electrification
of aircrafts enables a ton of
aeronautical innovations that were
simply not thinkable before and
probably have yet to be thought of
today."
6
Addressing New Challenges in Urban Air Mobility
