Denis Opudo
The McFly blockchain startup will be launching its projects in for air taxis services in 23 cities in 13 countries. Nairobi Kenya is one of the preferred destinations of the flying car’s plans. The business will take place in two phases. The first phase will entail a technological consortium of 12 companies. The companies are those developing the elements of the city air taxis across the flying cars. This will include Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOLs), energy and traffic management infrastructure.
The second phase will entail the building of the local communities known as McFly Chapters. This will aim at engaging the community on what the project entails. It will also involve finding industry experts to share research. Entrepreneurs will also be found to establish local connections with manufacturers. Moreover, connections will be initiated with manufacturers with real estate partners. This will be on landing pads and also the government bodies for registration. The project will open up new business for entrepreneurs. It will also open up businesses for engineering and drone experts. Furthermore, manufacturers of hardware and software will get business deals from the project. This is for the blockchain powered IOT for the urban air taxi infrastructure.
VTOLs will be driven by auto-pilot this is for the case of improving safety. The VTOL autonomy will take time during implementation. This is because users and regulars will take time to become more comfortable with the technology. They will also take time to see satisfaction proof that autonomy offers greater levels of safety than human pilots. This is according to Nikolay Bezhko the McFly’s lead community manager. Passengers will be picked up at the nearest heliport or helipad to their pick-up point. They will be then dropped at the nearest pad to their destination. The passengers will then take 5-10 minutes to walk to their end.
The cars will be efficient in fuel use, safe and no noise compared to helicopters. The company will use an initial production cost worth $120,000 per vehicle. However, that will reduce to $30,000 then $40,000 once they start producing in bulk. The trip will cost $8 in every minute. But pricing will depend on grid’s load. Transactions will be carried out on the McFly tokens on the blockchain.
