At their most-recent meeting, City Council’s Mobility Committee heard a presentation from Assistant City Manager Michael Rogerson the burgeoning air taxi industry, which Rogers framed as an emerging issue for city transportation.
“As a matter of fact, we’ve had these (vehicles) here in Austin, at South by Southwest,” Rogers said, referring to test flights hosted in March by local aviation start up Lift. “So this is happening, this is real.”
The industry has seen significant investment recently, Rogers noted, especially in the wake of recent executive orders from President Donald Trump that directed the Federal Air Administration to hurry along the process of bringing air taxis into use. The measure is among those aimed at boosting the country’s air defenses and civilian aviation. Rogers cited a Reuters article which reported that air taxi firm Archer Aviation raised over $850 million immediately following the orders’ signing in early June.
Air taxi companies like Archer and competitor Joby Aviation are hoping to popularize as a mainstream form of transit what are properly called electric vertical take off and landing vehicles or “eVTOLs” for short. The aircraft are something like very large drones. Like helicopters, they take off and land vertically, making urban flights feasible if not uncomplicated. Notably, they’re electric and thus run more quietly and fuel-efficiently than a conventional helicopter that burns jet fuel.
Rogers highlighted potential issues that the taxis could raise, including charging demand on the electrical grid and land use issues related to constructing or retrofitting “vertipads” in cities. There are also challenges posed by adding a new category of aircraft into the complex mesh of airspace regulations.
“I support technology. I’m gonna tell you, I’m a technology wonk. I love it. But we need to think about the impacts this can have,” he said.
Rogers called on the committee to consider working proactively to address eVTOLs in planning processes and to try to communicate with the companies aiming to bring the vehicles to market, in an effort “not to repeat the same mistakes” of the past.
Committee Chair Paige Ellis, thanking Rogers for his presentation, said that her “first and foremost” concern was safety.
“I’m just very concerned that things are going to be falling out of the sky,” Ellis said. “And that’s not something that anybody wants here in Austin, Texas.”
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