AI is Used by Flying Car Company to Design Vehicles

To optimize its electric aerial vehicles, SkyDrive and Braid Technologies collaborated to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to hundreds of design patterns.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by Japanese eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicle manufacturer SkyDrive to help with the design of their flying vehicles.

With Braid Technologies, SkyDrive is able to fine-tune the structure of its electric aerial vehicles (EAVs) by utilizing AI to develop millions of design patterns.

At startups Braid Technologies, engineers, scientists, and designers combine mathematics, physics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically find high performance advanced engineering ideas.

“We have been working with Braid to find new ways to optimize the structure of SkyDrive’s next-generation eVTOL,” said Arnaud Coville, chief development officer of SkyDrive. “Rather than using generalized techniques like topology optimization, we were inspired by their advanced and creative technology that deals with a large number of parameters that impact the weight of the structure.”

SkyDrive was established in 2018 and conducted its first crewed flight test in Japan in 2019, so the project is to potentially enhance the vehicle, which is getting closer to deployment.
For example, SkyDrive and subway operator Osaka Metro recently signed an agreement to consider using eVTOL vehicles in the Osaka area.

SkyDrive and Osaka Metro are planning how to use EAVs in practical applications in Japan, including vertiport operations for takeoffs and landings.
Osaka Metro, which also invested in SkyDrive, operates eight subway lines and a driverless tram and carries more than 2 million passengers a day.

The subway operator was already integrating different subways, buses and taxis in the Osaka area and was selected as the operator of a vertiport outside the Expo site in Osaka.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently accepted a type certification application from SkyDrive, submitted via Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB).

In addition to its anticipated JCAB type certification in 2026 or later, SkyDrive seeks FAA type certification.
In 2023, SkyDrive also set up a U.S. subsidiary in anticipation of entering the U.S. market, which is crucial for all manufacturers of eVTOL devices.

In order to collaborate on the development of an advanced mobility infrastructure in South Carolina, which serves as SkyDrive’s U.S. home base, the EAV manufacturer established a strategic relationship with Volatus Infrastructure. eVertisky recently purchased Volatus.

Additionally, SkyDrive consented to sell five of its three-seat aircraft to an Augusta, Georgia-based private charter service provider.
In order to establish use cases from Augusta Regional Airport to scale AAM in the area, SkyDrive and Bravo Air also partnered.
SkyDrive now includes Georgia as well as South Carolina thanks to the Bravo Air agreement.

SkyDrive, for instance, plans to create an air taxi network that will link Augusta Regional Airport with locations in the surrounding area.
Production of SkyDrive’s flying car has begun at a Suzuki factory in Shizuoka, Japan.

Together with Suzuki, Sky Works, the SkyDrive manufacturing branch, is producing the SkyDrive SD-05, or “flying car,” as SkyDrive calls it.
One hundred of the three-seater EAVs can be produced annually at the Suzuki factory.

The MASC General Incorporated Association, a group devoted to developing aerial tourism in the Setouchi Islands of western Japan, recently placed a preorder for vehicles from SkyDrive, and the company recently agreed to sell its EAVs to an association for aerial tourism in Japan.

MASC and SkyDrive are collaborating to investigate possible suburban routes for the flying vehicle SD-05.

Other showrooms for EAVs are in preparation, such as those by Florida-based Aeroauto Global, which has two being readied in Florida and one being developed in Austin, Texas.

A showroom also has been opened in Germany by EAV developer Pal-V.

SkyDrive recently partnered with the Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to develop high-speed charging facilities for EAVs with the first station planned for this year.

Tokyo-based SkyDrive and KEPCO started working together in 2022 leading to the new joint development project.

SkyDrive last year received $82 million in a grant from the Japanese government, when the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry selected SkyDrive for the Next Generation Air Mobility Field, part of an innovation promotion project.
SkyDrive’s stated vision is “to create a future where everyone has access to eVTOLs as their daily transportation in Japan and across the world.”

SkyDrive has a deal to sell up to 50 EAVs to Solyu in Korea, which is in the business of aircraft leasing and financing and aims to use EAVs to aid the severe traffic congestion there.