Did you ever imagine flying over the city in an air taxi that has no pilot? Do you believe it can take you from place to place in minutes? It sounds like science fiction, right? Well, not anymore.

An electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL, 电动垂直起降) aircraft (飞行器), also known as an air taxi, completed its first inter-city flight in Guangdong on Feb 27. The eVTOL aircraft started its journey from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, completing the 55-kilometer trip in about 20 minutes. This flight is an important development of this exciting new form of transport.

Air taxis use high technology to take off and land vertically like a helicopter, which doesn’t need long runways. Instead of using traditional combustion engines, air taxis use electric motors. These air taxis have propellers placed all over them to help them stay balanced. They also use lithiumion batteries to store electricity, letting them fly far and fast. With a central command center that keeps an eye on the flight, some of them can fly without a pilot.

There is no doubt that air taxis can help improve heavy traffic, with their direct point-to-point travel saving valuable time for urban people. Except this benefit, as an eco-friendly choice, air taxis produce fewer emissions than traditional cars, improving urban air quality.

However, air taxis also need special places to take off and land, which means they need eVTOL airports called “vertiports”. Now researchers are trying to make full use of the existing (现有的) small airports to serve as “vertiports”. And with plans to fly at low altitudes (纬度) in cities, there’s still much work to be done to keep everyone safe.