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Everybody's doing flying cars, so why aren't we soaring over traffic already?

"Where's my flying car?" has been the meme for impending technology that never materializes since before there were memes. And the trough of disillusionment for vehicles that can take to sky continues to nosedive, despite a nonstop fascination with flying cars and a recent rash of announcements about the technology, particularly from traditional automakers. Earlier this month, Toyota applied for an eye-popping patent for a flying car that has wheels with spring-loaded pop-out helicopter rotors. The patent filing says the wheels/rotors would be electrically powered, while in on-land mode the vehicle would have differential steering like tracked vehicles such as tanks and bulldozers. At an airshow in July, Aston Martin unveiled its Volante Vision Concept, an autonomous hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle it developed with Rolls-Royce. Aston says the Volante can fly at top speeds of around 200 mph and bills it as a luxury car for the skies. Audi used the Geneva Motor Show in March to unveil a flying car concept called the Pop.Up Next it developed with Airbus and Italdesign. If the Pop.Up Next, an electric and autonomous quadcopter/city car combo, gets stuck in traffic, an app can be used to summon an Airbus-developed drone to pick up the passenger compartment pod, leaving the chassis behind. Audi said that the Pop.Up Next is a "flexible on-demand concept that could open up mobility in the third dimension to people in cities." But Audi also acknowledged that at this point it has no plans to develop it. The cash-stoked, skies-the-limit Silicon Valley tech crowd is also bullish on flying cars. The startup Kitty Hawk that's backed by Google co-founder Larry Page announced in June that it's taking pre-orders for its single-seat electric Flyer that's powered by 10 propellers and is capable of vertical takeoffs and landings. The current version can only fly up to 20 mph and 10 feet in the air and has a flight time of just 12 to 20 minutes on a full charge. The Flyer is considered a recreational vehicle, so doesn't require a pilot's license. Uber says it plans to launch its more ambitious Elevate program and UberAIR service in 2023. "Uber customers will be able to push a button and get a flight on-demand with uberAIR in Dallas, Los Angeles and a third international market," Uber Elevate promises on its website.

Does faster charging make you want an Audi Q7 PHEV?

Don't let the image of a heavy diesel-powered plug-in hybrid SUV fool you. The Audi Q7 E-Tron will be a quick thing when it goes on sale in Europe this summer. And the SUV will be able to be recharged at a pretty good clip as well, says Automotive News Europe. A full charge of the Q7 E-Tron can provide a range of as much as 35 miles in all-electric mode, using lenient European specifications. One of the model's bells and whistles will be battery-recharging technology that allows the SUV to be recharged at up to 7.2 kilowatts. That means that the battery can be fully recharged in about two and a half hours. Not exactly Tesla Supercharger territory, but not bad. How much a faster recharging option impacts demand for a plug-in vehicle is open to interpretation. For instance, an Idaho National Laboratory study released late last year estimated that about 85 percent of the recharging activity for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in and Nissan Leaf EV happened at home, implying that how long it takes your plug-in to fill up may not be a huge factor. So, how much would this option of faster recharging sway your decision in buying a plug-in hybrid? The Q7 E-Tron's V6 diesel engine and electric motor, which operate in a parallel hybrid setup, combine to deliver 373 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. That combination can propel the SUV from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about six seconds. Of course, test that out a few times, and your all-electric range is likely to drop a bit. Audi is expanding its batch of E-Tron plug-in vehicles to better compete with German brethren BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Audi's first E-Tron, the A3, sold almost 12,000 units in Europe last year, about the same as BMW's all-electric and range-extender variants of the i3 in Europe combined, Automotive News says, citing JATO Dynamics. Audi will debut its Q5 E-Tron later this year and the A8 E-Tron in 2017. The Q7 E-Tron will be priced at about $88,000 in Europe. As for US sales of that model, questions remain about whether the SUV will have a diesel or gas-powered engine paired with the electric motor, but Americans should start getting access to it in either 2017 or 2018. Check out our Quick Spin here. Featured Gallery Audi Q7 E-Tron 3.0 TDI Quattro View 40 Photos News Source: Automotive News Europe-sub.req.Image Credit: Copyright 2016 Sebastian Blanco/AOL Green Audi Diesel Vehicles Hybrid PHEV e-tron

Audi Q7 testing gives us clearer view of new look

Audi just announced its intentions to build the Q1 in 2016. By that time, the company will already have introduced the opposing bookend to that subcompact utility vehicle, the fullsize Q7. The last time we saw the next-gen Audi Q7 out testing, our spy shots were very low quality and didn't reveal much about the luxury SUV. This time around we're able to make out a few key elements about the Q7.
For starters, the unfinished headlights have a stylish, wave-like lighting element with a three-dimensional appearance, while the rear of the Q7 will definitely get a similar wraparound liftgate as the current model. Overall, this prototype looks to be about the same size as the existing Q7, so it will be interesting to see how Audi squeezes almost 800 pounds from the SUV's curb weight. The diet will surely help improve efficiency, and we also hear that Audi is considering a plug-in hybrid model in addition to the standard gas and diesel variants.
Riding on a shared platform with the next-gen Volkswagen Touareg, Porsche Cayenne and the upcoming Bentley Falcon SUV, the next Audi Q7 is expected to bow in late 2014 for the 2015 model year.