I was rubbing my hands together in anticipation of something like the Skai to present itself and what do i see ?
A helicopter ? With wings ??? i mean C'mon we need those sleek looking multirotor designs to show up more often,
Boeing already has a helicopter with rear propulsion going at mach znot... helicopters are old and big, we need the new, we need the MULTIROTOR revolution !

Not a helicopter, it's a gyrodyne. The other designs are scaled up drones which don't address the dead zone of catastrophic failure under 60 m. Jaunt comes with a big old parachute instantly deployed- and it's front of the queue for legislation.

Then maybe what really needed is, an electric quadcopter, w/ specifically-designed propellers, which are capable of autorotation (just like a gyrodyne)?!
(Also adding a gas turbine "range extender" that works w/ bio-diesel or ethanol would not hurt!)

Loz makes great points in this, but I think in the end (in 20 years?) we will see exclusively multirotor craft like a giant DJI drone, but with more backup systems. Electric motors are just SO incredibly, unbelievably bulletproof reliable (even more than a jet turbine), I think this complex main rotor design might have more points of failure but I'm no expert for sure. Also, perhaps a small rocket on the bottom, to slow the final 10 feet before hitting the ground could cover the death zone ballistic parachute problem?

So even without a huge chunk of certification money on the debit side of the ledger, I find it hard to see how something that costs multiples of the price of a car and has operating costs ditto, plus the cost of dedicated landing spaces, is ever going to deliver a cost structure similar to on-call cabs driven by minimum-wage contractors. But, if your city has a mere million people in it, the top 0.1% is still a thousand people for whom money is no object to ride in comfort above all the ordinary mortals. There are 500 such cities in the world, so figure a market of as many as 50,000 units of these "air taxis", maybe more.

@riczero-b... "gyrodene"just a fancy name for a gyrocopter pffftt...
There are tons of ways to make a Multicopter Safe... Lets make it happen ! ! !

@FB36
@guzmanchinky

Now thats the spirit !

@paul314

Its called evolution,infrastructure wont pop into existence like a magical tooth fairy, it will be built over time and be integrated over time, and THEN it will be cheaper to operate, and more readily available it doesn't happen overnight, but happen it will, and its going to be absolutely HUGE ;)

Perhaps the author should check out the Lilium EVOTL. This contraption looks silly.

Having to autorotate to the ground on failure sounds like you'd need a skilled pilot in the loop and helicopters still crash badly despite their ability to autorotate. Isn't one of the premises of air taxis their potential pilotless potential? Putting a rotating blade on top of the craft seems to completely preclude having a parachute deployment as a safety solution. Personally, I'd rather fly in something controlled by computer which has multiple electric motors with independent emergency power supplies, a parachute system and external airbags to cushion the contact with the ground.

You omitted the important safety requirement that engine failure over populous areas need to leave the aircraft with controllable landing options - it doesn't matter how safely you descend, if you end up in the middle of a highway or crowd of people or electrical substation etc etc - death and mayhem to OTHER PEOPLE will result. Thank goodness for certifications - there's no limit to the number of humans with no comprehension of safety and common sense, who just can't get the irrational idea of multi-rotors out of their heads.