Hoversurf and Aerial Mobility: The Future Looks Amazing!
Urban mobility will be one of the biggest challenges that cities, and megacities, will have to face in the coming years. Urban Aerial Mobility or “UAM” is currently being explored as a solution to these challenges and at The Aviary Project Summit in November 2018, we discussed some of the main issues that this industry will face. At the top of the list, these issues included:
1. Legislation and government support
2. Battery technology
3. Public awareness and acceptance
Although the first two points are quite technical and are more related to behind-the-scenes developments, we believe it is crucial to help shed some light on this industry and give you the chance to meet global leaders to learn more about the future of aerial mobility! To that end, this article will be the first in a series of interviews of leaders within the UAM industry to explore the current state of this sector and what can we expect in the future.
In this article, I have the pleasure to present Joseph Segura-Conn, COO of Hoversurf (California, US) the company which developed the world famous Hoverbike.
Born and raised in California (US), Joseph started his entrepreneurial journey when he was 21 years old and through his experience across a wide variety of start-ups, he met Alex Atamov, the founder of Hoversurf.
The initial success of Hoversurf was only possible thanks to the availability of certain technologies, previously inaccessible at a small scale, and a group of talented engineers able to create revolutionary aircraft. New trends, passion and knowledge are their key drivers generating their endless willingness to build the future of mobility.
In particular, Hoversurf is famous for their Hoverbike but their mission is not actually to be an eVTOL company. Rather, Hoversurf aims to develop enabling technologies for this industry.
Crucially, what most people do not know, is that one of Hoversurf’s several hoverbike prototypes actually showcases more than 15 patented technologies that were developed internally by Hoversurf. This ranges from propulsion systems to on-board computers and has allowed Hoversurf to demonstrate the safety and reliability of each subsystem and provide strong data for integration into future vehicles.
Hoversurf pushed recently its Hoverbike one step further with a bladeless version at CES 2019 in Las Vegas.
How does this play into the wider eVTOL sector though? According to Joseph: “The biggest challenge, not only for us, but for everyone, is battery technology. There is a real limitation on the possibilities and what companies can access”.
Developing new battery technology is very expensive and unless the firm is able to grow to multibillion-dollar proportions, it wouldn’t have the ability to implement the latest developments. But the future still looks exciting and as Joseph said: “the good thing is everyone is running into it and major automotive and technology companies such as Samsung or Sony are working on it”. Therefore, by the time the “flying taxis” will be marketable, he expects battery technologies to be at a suitable level for exploitation. However, Joseph believes that this will not be a continuous improvement and went on to explain that “there will be a pretty flat progression of battery capacity over the next couple of years until a huge jump with disruptive technology”, possibly in 5 years.
The future UAM market is still not yet accurately defined, but for Joseph, “the big picture will be vehicles that will carry at least 4 people from point A to point B”. Hoversurf hopes to work within this market by first focusing on developing low-altitude technologies that are safe and comfortable for users before thinking of creating a larger, multi-passenger aircraft. In part, this is due to a strong belief that public acceptance must come first and that the general public is not ready to welcome full-scale electric aircraft.
This situation is comparable to Uber at their first stages when people were not ready to jump straight in a stranger’s car. Uber succeeded in changing people’s mind through small steps and today, ridesharing journeys with randomised cars, drivers and passengers are commonplace.
So the question is when and where? Joseph believes that the eVTOL market won’t go-live before 2025 to 2030 and certainly not within US (probably somewhere in the UAE). This is consistent with our latest joint-study performed with Roland Berger as shown below:
The possible location of the market’s birth depends mainly on the combination of welcoming regulation and a strong company presence in the area but will also heavily lean on the most economically viable use cases or specific routes.
Really though, why does Hoversurf feel that this technology is important and how do they think it will impact our lives? In short, these machines may seem like science fiction, but they are an essential developmental step for cities in places such as “Los Angeles, San Francisco, China, India or any place where the traffic is getting worse and population is increasing dramatically”.
Joseph highlighted that “we only have two means of operation: either we go underground, or we go in the sky”. The underground way is much safer but more expensive and difficult as cities are expanding. However, “if you look at the sky through your window, 99% of the time you will see nothing up there”. As a result, the capital requirements are much less than for ground transportation and the associated infrastructure.
Hoversurf is probably one of the most advanced technology companies in this new market, (demonstrated even further by their latest unveiling this week at CES) and their vision to focus on smaller scale proven technologies offers a hugely disruptive approach in this sector. We still shouldn’t underestimate the long road to full-size aircraft, but where we’re going, we don’t need roads!
Thank you to Mr Joseph Segura-Conn for his time during the interview.
If you want to learn more, please feel free to reach out to us at www.aviaryproject.com or Hoversurf at www.hoversurf.com
About me: I am a full-time MBA student at Imperial College London with experience in consulting and partnership acquisitions. Passionate about innovation and mobility, I dedicate my extra-curriculum time in making an impact that matters for the future of UAM with The Aviary Project.
