Most Read This Week:  Boeing’s Air Taxi Company Flies in LA; 1,000 Drones Light up Sky Over Central Park

Here are the most read stories on IoT World Today this week:

Boeing Air Taxi Company Flies in Los Angeles

Boeing subsidiary Wisk Aero has completed a public demonstration flight of its fully autonomous electric aerial vehicle (EAV) in Los Angeles.

The vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, which seats four people, has a fixed wingspan of 50 feet and cruises up to 4,000 feet above ground at speeds up to 135 mph.

In the demonstration, Wisk flew the vehicle at Long Beach Airport. The trial flight follows an earlier demonstration of the EAV in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, when Wisk showcased the vehicle’s hovering and turning capabilities. 

See the EAV in action here >>>

Flying Car Test Center Opens in China; Completed in 4 Months

A testing center to develop eVTOL (electric takeoff and landing) vehicles has opened in Foshan, China. 

The center, said to be a “flying car ground transportation comprehensive testing” site, is designed to research and develop novel flying technologies, according to Xpeng Aeroht, the company behind the center.

Xpeng Aeroht, a subsidiary of Chinese automaker Xpeng, Inc., is believed to be the largest flying car company in Asia, with more than 800 employees.

Read about the flying car site here >>>

1,000 Drones Light Up Sky Over Central Park

Related:Most Read This Week: Will.i.am-Backed Flying Car Gets OK to Fly in Italy, Bill Gates Backs Self-Driving Company

Drones lit up the sky above New York’s Central Park, in a community event hosted by Amsterdam’s Studio Drift and Drone Stories.

Featuring 1,000 drones, the show is said to be the largest art project seen in Central Park since 2005 and featured three performances designed to explore the “relationship between man, nature and technology,” according to Drift. 

Drift said to create the performance it translated more than 10 years of “starling flight behavior research into an especially developed software that is embedded in the drones.”

See the drone display here >>>

Flying Vehicle Traffic Routing to Be Tested With Quantum Computing

Quantum computing company Pasqal is partnering with the Quantum Transformation Project (QX-PJ) to optimize low-altitude air traffic using quantum algorithms.

The pilot experiment was first launched by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, Tohoku University and unmanned traffic management solutions specialist OneSky Systems in June 2021. 

Under the latest announcement, quantum computing technology will be used to develop flight routes and schedule fleets of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. 

Pasqal will deploy its quantum computing solution with Quantum Sky, a quantum demonstration QX-PJ created of a futuristic three-dimensional traffic control system to keep hundreds of thousands of flying cars and drones safely traveling in the air.

Read more about the project here >>>

Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot Gains New Skills

Boston Dynamics has announced new capabilities for its warehouse robot Stretch, an autonomous robotic arm designed for loading and unloading stock.

The new feature, known as multipick, allows the robotic arm to move several boxes at once, enabling “significantly higher productivity.”

Stretch is being integrated with a range of “intelligent box behaviors” that allow it to autonomously make decisions on which items to pick up, depending on their size and distribution.

The announcement comes as part of Boston Dynamics’ plan to extend Stretch’s warehouse applications, including case picking, palletizing and depalletizing, and loading containers.

Read about Stretch’s new capabilities >>>