PHOENIX — For those of you who think traffic is bad and many Arizonans don’t know how to drive, here’s a thought to consider: Flying cars.
Gov. Katie Hobbs is taking steps to have the Arizona Commerce Authority expand its role into looking at what it would take for the state to make such products available here. That covers everything from being a place where the technology can be developed to how the state would license what are known as “roadworthy aircraft.”
That’s just step one. She also is looking farther down the road at making things like flying taxis that can take off and land everywhere available in Arizona on a commercial basis.
To get there, the governor announced Wednesday she is revamping an existing agency division that now deals with things like autonomous driving vehicles into the Institute for Advanced Mobility, emphasizing the future is now about three-dimensional travel. And that, said Hobbs, could form the basis for making these technologies available here.
Lawmakers already have tried to take the first baby steps.
Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa, introduced legislation earlier this year to make sure that when what some call “roadable aircraft” are available the state will be ready to register them.