Accelerating Change: Why Alauda are Racing Towards a Mobility Revolution 🏁
Alauda's approach with Airspeeder is a deliberate echo of the past—recognising that the competitive nature of racing will drive faster technological advances and more widespread adoption.
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BIG IDEA
Mobility revolutions follow a pattern.
We’ve seen it with the shift from horses to motorised vehicles and the current transition from petrol and diesel to electric power.
Racing, as a platform for competition, compresses development cycles and tests new innovations under extreme conditions, often bringing new technologies to the consumer market faster than they otherwise would.
Look no further than Formula 1, where hybrid technology was perfected long before it became mainstream in road cars. Or Formula E, which brought electric propulsion into the limelight. Extreme E (now morphing into Extreme H) is another example, where off-road racing in extreme environments showcases the limits of electric and hydrogen technologies. In each case, the racetrack becomes the proving ground for the technologies that will eventually change how we live, travel, and interact with our environment.
Now, we stand at the precipice of another mobility revolution: electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), or, in more common parlance, flying cars.
These are not the products of science fiction anymore. Thanks to major advances in electric propulsion and a growing demand for cleaner, more efficient urban mobility, flying cars are beginning to become a reality. And Alauda Aeronautics, who are at the forefront of this step-change, have taken a unique approach to eVTOL development.
Instead of solely focusing on engineering advancements behind closed doors, they’ve embraced racing as the accelerant of change. Their vision? To create the "Formula 1 of the Skies," a high-octane eVTOL racing series called Airspeeder.
This approach is a deliberate echo of the past—recognising that the competitive nature of racing will drive faster technological advances and more widespread adoption, as Jack Withinshaw (Airspeeder’s Co-Founder & CCO) explained on the Sports Pundit Podcast,
“If you break down what the automotive industry looks like 120 years ago, it looks very similar to what we're looking at now.”
“In the early days of automotive, there were gentlemen races, riding in circles on a new technology that was very loud, very scary, very unknown. There were no gas stations, no one had petrol, no one had driver's licenses and it was very frontier. But racing was the first application for that tech.”
“And so,” Withinshaw explained, “for us to be able to build flying cars, it was very practical for us to build a flying car racing series to be able to develop them in.”
Despite decades of pop culture promising flying cars—from Star Wars to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—we’re closer than ever to making them a reality.
This isn’t just Alauda’s view.
Major automotive players like Toyota, Hyundai, Daimler, Suzuki, and Honda are heavily investing in the space. Toyota, for instance, has poured almost $400 million into Joby Aviation, while Hyundai has committed around $1 billion in American air mobility company Supernal to accelerate its development of flying electric taxis. These investments reflect a broader trend among traditional car manufacturers who are now rebranding themselves as "mobility companies," rather than just automotive makers, recognising that the future of transportation will take many forms beyond the road.
The eVTOL market was valued at $5.4 billion in 2021, and by 2028, it's expected to grow to $23.21 billion. This growth suggests a rapid acceleration in both investment and innovation, and companies like Alauda are using racing as the lever to push the envelope.
But it’s not just about building fast, futuristic vehicles. Developing a racing series for flying cars requires an entire ecosystem—from safety regulations to infrastructure supporting urban air mobility. Airspeeder, with its uncrewed vehicles and plans for piloted racers, is building out these frameworks. They are not merely focused on winning races but establishing technologies and safety protocols that will make flying cars a reality.
From collision avoidance systems to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the innovations from the racetrack will spill over into the wider world – just as they have done in various ways from Formula 1.
“A number of safety features across all teams will be mandatory,” said Withinshaw. “[These technologies will] keep pilots safe in the race series and cut their teeth in the racetrack before entering the world of personal air mobility.”
As far as challenger leagues go, Airspeeder is an attractive proposition for these reasons.
While traditional revenue streams like media rights and ticketing will play a role, Airspeeder’s real value comes from is focus on building technology.
“We’ve got a number of automotive names that want to do exactly what they did 120 years ago,” Withinshaw said.
Airspeeder offers a turnkey solution where teams can insert their technology into vehicles, starting with limited components like batteries, with the opportunity to expand to more over time.
The same goes for technical partners.
“We’ve got amazing motorsport and non-motorsport sponsors who are using the series as a tech development hub,” said Withinshaw, citing Intel, IWC Schaffhausen, Telstra, AWS, and Acronis. “It’s a commercial and technically led partnership, using the racetrack to develop new IP and technology.”
“Our races aren’t just entertainment,” Withinshaw added, “they’re a microcosm of the cities of the future, where tech that will underpin flying cars can be tested and validated.”
Just as racing propelled the automobile, flying cars will find their wings not in the laboratory but on the racetrack.
THE PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Jack?
We discuss the promise of flying cars, founding and developing Airspeeder, recruiting pilots, digital racetracks, the role of esports, cities of the future, the Impact of eVOTL as a mobility revolution, going behind the scenes of the series on YouTube, and much, much more.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and I’d love to hear what you think! 👇
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