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By Simona Kitanovska, Zenger News
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The owner of a flying car company has completed the "first ever" commute in one of its $83,600 space-age vehicles.
Tomasz Patan, co-founder of the Swedish firm Jetson, piloted the Jetson ONE vehicle from his Italian home to a company building in Tuscany 4.8 km (2.98 miles) away. The firm says the commute time was reduced by 88 percent.
Jetson say the trip to the Santa Maria a Monte facility is a "momentous occasion for the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) sector."
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The aircraft is powered by eight electric motors, has a flight time of 20 minutes, and can reach a top speed of 102 kilometers per hour (63 miles per hour).
Its construction was strongly influenced by the race cars' lightweight aluminum space frame design and Carbon-Kevlar composite body.
Running on a high discharge lithium-ion battery, the vehicle can carry a pilot's weight of 100 kilograms (210 pounds).
San Sunner, Jetson's head of communications, explained: "On May 21, after months of rigorous testing, the Jetson team completed the first-ever eVTOL commute.
"The team waited in anticipation for the Jetson ONE arrival at the Santa Maria a Monte facility in Tuscany."
Patan, who as well as being the co-founder of Jetson, is also its CTO, said: "Our long-term goal is to democratize flight. We firmly believe the 'eVTOL' is the future for mass transportation. We are committed to making this a reality.
"The Jetson is built like a Formula One car for the sky and incredibly fun to fly. Most importantly, the Flight Stabilization System we developed makes flight super easy.
"We can make anyone a pilot in less than five minutes," said Peter Ternstrom, co-founder and president.
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Jetson say their prototype "proof of concept" was finished in the spring of 2018, and have since been working on a "consumer-friendly" version.
The company also said: "The entire 2022 production is sold out, but we are accepting orders for 2023 delivery.
"We intend to make everyone a pilot."
The founders say they have taken extra care regarding the safety of their consumers. The electric aerial vehicle is fully equipped with a spaceframe safety cell, inspired by race-car designs, and it comes with hands-free hover and emergency functions.
If a passenger needs to quickly exit the Jetson ONE in a case of an emergency, a ballistic parachute that rapidly deploys is also provided with the vehicle.
The Jetson ONE has the ability to fly safely even with the loss of one motor, and it has a redundant flight computer.
It also comes with Lidar sensors-driven terrain tracking and obstacle avoidance, to fully ensure the utmost safe and comfortable of flights.
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This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.
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