Urban Mobility: Airtaxi Cabin from a Passengers Point of View

Within German Aerospace Center (DLR), a project called HorizonUAM was launched in July 2020. Its main goal is to develop and design an aerial vehicle which would support the infrastructure of the ever-growing cities. The vehicle will be designed for the four different scenarios: airport shuttle, intracity transport, intercity transport and suburban connection. This paper shows the research concerning the potential users of the vehicle including their requirements and shows a possible design solution for an airtaxi cabin. The process has followed the Design Thinking Method, ensuring a central role for the users. To determine whether there are potential passengers willing to use such a vehicle, in-depth research has been done. Data found in previously done research has been compared with results of the in-house research, consisting of a number of workshops with representatives of German population as well as results form questionnaires sent out to a different group of German population. Based on this data, different fictive personas are created, to aid in understanding of the user’s needs. In addition, trend analysis on how the urban mobility is developing, has also been executed. The state-of-the-art solutions available are analyzed and their strengths and weaknesses determined. The entire research has resulted in an extensive list of requirements for the design of the cabin. To address such a complex design challenge, a morphological chart has been created, systematically deconstructing the main function into subfunctions. This has been done by multiple workshops with a constant team. This paper will show how the different scenarios influence the cabin design and will establish whether it is possible to serve multiple scenarios with a single cabin, from a passenger’s point of view. In addition, it will demonstrate the level of acceptance among alleged passengers and their vision on how a cabin of such a vehicle should look like and what it should focus on. Furthermore, it will display how the results of previously committed research are translated into first ideas, sketched as well as 2D as 3D