Florida is laying the groundwork to usher in the era of flying cars, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Jared Perdue announced.

The state is developing a vision for an aerial highway and expanding its state-of-the-art FDOT SunTrax testing facility in Polk County’s Auburndale, which was originally built for autonomous vehicle testing, Perdue said.

“You could essentially be looking at something that was envisioned in ‘The Jetsons,’ or maybe ‘The Fifth Element,’” Perdue explained. “You’ve got all these vehicles flying around. How do you control that air traffic? What are the origins and destinations? What type of technology and public infrastructure is going to be needed?”

Perdue shared these updates on the state’s infrastructure preparations for this new mode of transportation during his speech Monday at the Future of Florida Forum, the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting.

Earlier this month, Governor Ron DeSantis first mentioned the idea of transporting people via vertiports from Orlando to Tampa during a press conference. The concept was also presented to Florida leaders during their international trade mission to the Paris Air Show this summer.

Officials described the proposed aerial rides as electric, short-distance trips featuring vertical takeoff similar to a helicopter but without the traditional propellers.

Perdue provided more insight into the behind-the-scenes work helping this technology take flight — “no pun intended,” he joked.

“We’ve already rolled out guidelines for local governments to start thinking about how they’re going to handle zoning,” Perdue said. “If you look at the future 20 to 30 years from now, we could have thousands of these things flying. We need to start preparing for that. What does that look like? This will place a much bigger load on conventional air traffic control than anything we’ve seen before.”

Neither DeSantis nor Perdue have provided a timeline for when these aerial rides might begin or details about the potential cost of a ride.

“We want to make sure these companies have a business climate where they can have speed to market and become profitable as quickly as possible,” Perdue emphasized.

As Florida moves forward with these ambitious plans, the state aims to position itself at the forefront of the emerging flying car revolution.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/762559-florida-is-getting-ready-for-flying-cars-that-could-resemble-the-fifth-element/