Nashville Researchers, NASA Working To Develop 'Air Taxis'

Can you imagine crossing the entirety of Nashville in just five minutes? It sounds impossible, but a group of researchers at Vanderbilt are working with NASA to develop "air taxis" that could do just that.

Gautam Biswas, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt, is one of the researchers working to develop the new mode of transportation as part of a $2.5 million project with the space agency. The "air taxis" could fly six to eight passengers from Point A to Point B in aircrafts described as "octocopters," greatly reducing time spent traveling, WSMV reports.

"Nashville is very spread out and highways get very crowded," said Biswas. "So, there are possibilities where you can pick up people from the suburbs and transport them into downtown."

Biswas contiuned, "If you set up these ports where these larger air mobility vehicles can land on roofs, they can pick up people, and they can drop them off another roof about four to five miles away. It's going to be a five-to-ten minute flight instead of a 30-minute drive."

Of course, with a new form of travel comes additional safety concerns. The Vanderbilt team will research solutions for potential malfunctions.

"Safety is a much more critical issue. You can't crash because you'll kill people," said Biswas. Marcos Quynones, who studies potential air taxi hazards via simulation, added, "We want to explore all possibilities to minimize the risk the most."

NASA recently tested an air taxi California as part of its research into the future of aviation. Check out the flight below to see the aircraft in action.