Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging System of System (SoS) that faces challenges in system architecture, planning, task management, and execution. Traditional architectural approaches struggle with scalability, adaptability, and seamless resource integration within dynamic and complex environments. This paper presents an intelligent holonic architecture that incorporates Large Language Model (LLM) to manage the complexities of UAM. Holons function semi autonomously, allowing for real time coordination among air taxis, ground transport, and vertiports. LLMs process natural language inputs, generate adaptive plans, and manage disruptions such as weather changes or airspace closures.Through a case study of multimodal transportation with electric scooters and air taxis, we demonstrate how this architecture enables dynamic resource allocation, real time replanning, and autonomous adaptation without centralized control, creating more resilient and efficient urban transportation networks. By advancing decentralized control and AI driven adaptability, this work lays the groundwork for resilient, human centric UAM ecosystems, with future efforts targeting hybrid AI integration and real world validation.

Tech expert Kurt Knutsson discusses Joby Aviation and Virgin Atlantic planning to launch 200-mph U.K. air taxis linking airports and cities. Imagine skipping the gridlock and soaring over the English countryside, arriving at your destination in a fraction of the time. What sounds like a scene from a futuristic movie is about to become a reality in the U.K., thanks to a partnership between Joby Aviation, a California-based company, and Virgin Atlantic. They're teaming up to introduce electric air taxis to the U.K., revolutionizing how people travel between airports and nearby cities. Let's take a closer look at this development that could foreshadow the future of transportation here in the U.S. Get security alerts & expert tech tips – sign up for Kurt's The CyberGuy Report now. Joby Aviation's innovative aircraft are at the heart of this transportation revolution.

User studies are crucial for meeting user needs. In user studies, real experimental scenarios and participants are constructed and recruited. However, emerging and unfamiliar studies face limitations, including safety concerns and iterative efficiency. To address these challenges, this study utilizes a large language model (LLM) to create generative AI virtual scenarios for user experience. By recruiting real users to evaluate this experience, we can collect feedback that enables rapid iteration in the early design phase. The air taxi is particularly representative of these challenges and has been chosen as the case study for this research. The key contribution was designing a virtual ATJ using OpenAI's GPT-4 model and AI image and video generators. Based on the LLM-generated scripts, key visuals were created for the air taxi, and the ATJ was evaluated by 72 participants. Furthermore, the LLM demonstrated the ability to identify and suggest environments that significantly improve participants' attitudes toward air taxis. Education level and gender significantly influenced participants' attitudes and their satisfaction with the ATJ. Our study confirms the capability of generative AI to support user studies, providing a feasible approach and valuable insights for designing air taxi user experiences in the early design phase.

Taking a flight in a pilotless self-flying plane might be a wild proposition for some - but robot passenger aircraft could be the future of air travel. As a fascinating new video reveals. For his series'Airplane Mode', Nicky Kelvin, Editor at Large at The Points Guy, goes behind the scenes at Wisk Aero headquarters in Mountain View, California, to find out more about its revolutionary all-electric pilotless air taxi. What makes the plane extra futuristic is that it has electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) capabilities. In the video, Nicky meets Brian Yutko, Wisk CEO, who shows Nicky inside a Wisk Air Taxi Gen 6, the model Wisk anticipates it will seek Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearance for, then take to market to transport passengers.

There were plenty of creative tech innovations this year. Technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace in our world. It's hard not to be wowed by the incredible innovations that human creativity and ingenuity have produced this past year. From conversational AI to robots, from flying sports cars to electric flying craft, we have seen some of the most remarkable breakthroughs in history. As 2023 comes to a close, let's review some of the most fascinating and influential technology that made this year unforgettable.

Perception, Planning, and Control form the essential components of autonomy in advanced air mobility. This work advances the holistic integration of these components to enhance the performance and robustness of the complete cyber-physical system. We adapt Perception Simplex, a system for verifiable collision avoidance amidst obstacle detection faults, to the vertical landing maneuver for autonomous air mobility vehicles. We improve upon this system by replacing static assumptions of control capabilities with dynamic confirmation, i.e., real-time confirmation of control limitations of the system, ensuring reliable fulfillment of safety maneuvers and overrides, without dependence on overly pessimistic assumptions. Parameters defining control system capabilities and limitations, e.g., maximum deceleration, are continuously tracked within the system and used to make safety-critical decisions. We apply these techniques to propose a verifiable collision avoidance solution for autonomous aerial mobility vehicles operating in cluttered and potentially unsafe environments.

Air taxis are electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can carry up to two passengers or 600 pounds of cargo. They are powered by 16 electric rotors and can fly at speeds of up to 80 mph and distances of up to 18 miles. Imagine flying over the city in a pilotless, electric-powered aircraft that can take you from point A to point B in minutes without a pilot onboard. Sounds like science fiction, right? China-based Ehang has become the world's first company to receive airworthiness certification for its fully autonomous, passenger-carrying air taxis.

When city approval of a proposed $350 million skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles was on the line, project manager Hamid Behdad knew he had to give in to the last-minute demand of a planning commissioner to quadruple the number of electric vehicle charging stations in the condominium tower. "When you are in the heat of the hearing in the last leg of the proposal, you aren't going to say no," Behdad said, even though he thought the requirement was overkill. Today, with the Perla on Broadway complete and angling for buyers, Behdad said he is "extremely glad that commissioner forced us" to install chargers on 20% of the building's parking stalls. "If we didn't have these 90 chargers, we would be in real trouble selling units," he said. Landlords of apartments, hotels, office buildings and other commercial properties are rushing to avoid similar trouble.

There's a lot of buzz about flying taxis, even though none are buzzing overhead. Investors are pouring capital into start-ups racing to develop new electric aircraft that take off and land vertically like a helicopter but fly horizontally like an airplane. Major airlines are investing in some of these start-ups, betting that they will one day zip passengers between airports and city centers much faster than cars or public transit. A look at how innovation and technology are transforming the way we live, work and play. One major issue is they will need enough places for these vehicles to take off and land.

It's year five, or maybe ten, of "drones are going to revolutionize transport" and so far, we've got very little to show for it. Maybe it's time to put these foolish ambitions to rest and focus on where this technology could actually do some good, rather than pad out a billionaire's bottom line or let the rich skip traffic. The promise of drone deliveries, drone taxis, and personal drone attendants has never sat, or rather floated, right with me. There's so little to be gained, while braving so much liability and danger, and necessitating so much invention and testing. Why is anyone even pursuing this? I suspect it is the Jetsons-esque technotopianism instilled in so many of us from birth: It's only a matter of time and effort before we have the flying cars, subliminal learning pillows, and robot housekeepers we deserve, right?