Indonesia shows off flying taxi prototype, powered by batteries

Indonesian venture capital firm UMG Idealab recently demonstrated a high-tech product they invested in: a prototype of a flying electric taxi.

The literal translation of this "flying car" is "Frogs", and its development team is also called FROGS. The startup, headquartered in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, claims to be the first company in Indonesia to produce a manned flying car. (Translator's note: Since the product and the founding team have the same name, for the sake of convenience, the "Frog" in the following text refers to the product, and FROGS refers to the founding team)

According to Jefri Pratama, partner of UMB Idealab Venture Capital Fund, the design of this prototype is inspired by quadcopter drones. At present, the cabin, engine and rotor have been assembled and can be put into use. The main power source of the flying car is the battery.

Let's take a look at the specific parameters. According to the company's official website, the latest Produk Frogs V2 has a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour, a flight altitude of up to 2,400 meters, a maximum flight time of 1 hour after charging, can carry up to 2 people, and a maximum load of 200 kilograms.

"The only work left is to fine-tune the cabin interior, such as the seats. Once this work is completed, the device will be flown to Germany to participate in the Hannover Industrial Fair from April 20 to 24," said Jefri.

Jefry revealed that the overall structure of the "Frog" is made of strong but lightweight carbon fiber, which has a high safety factor. In addition, this prototype has other features, such as a fault protection mechanism: when one of the engines fails in mid-air, the engine inside the engine can take over the other engine, so as not to let the flying car fall.

It is reported that every component of the prototype has passed the test and met the safety requirements. At the same time, the multiple test flights of the "flying car" have also been carried out smoothly, and the internal systems have operated smoothly, safely and stably.

Frog started developing two years ago, with a total investment of 1 billion rupiah (about 73,000 U.S. dollars). The founding team FROGS was originally just a technology product studio, and then they were spotted by UMB Idealab and joined the ecosystem of this venture capital company, becoming a startup. However, according to the official website, the company has less than ten people, and the founder is named Rakhman Ardiansyah.

According to the team's official website, the original intention of designing the "Frog" is to help customers get rid of the trouble of traffic congestion and deliver goods efficiently. But according to UMB Idealab's idea, after it is put into commercial operation, the frog can also help people transport various materials including military equipment from remote areas to all parts of the country. Not only that, this flying taxi can also assist relevant agencies in emergency evacuation during disasters.

"We hope that this device can be put into commercial operation as soon as possible - of course, this depends on the attitude of the regulator. As far as I know, Indonesia has not yet issued any regulations and policies to regulate flying electric taxis," said Jefry.

Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Industry, Indonesia has become one of the official partners of the Hannover Industrial Fair. In addition to Frog, several venture capital and incubators such as UMG Idealab will also showcase their investment results in the field of technology applications over the past five years at the Expo.

"As a national partner of this conference, Indonesia's main goal is to carry out in-depth cooperation with various countries in investment, technology, human resources and other areas," Doddy Rahadi, head of regional development and international industry access at the Indian Ministry of Industry, said in a written statement.

According to Doddy, this year's expo will attract tens of thousands of visitors from dozens of countries. In 2019, the event attracted about 65,000 visitors from 73 countries, and nearly 5.6 million business orders were signed during the conference.

In addition to Frog, another startup product from Indonesia that will be exhibiting is Widya, which will showcase Indonesia's new technological achievements in big data, smart speakers, robots, face recognition, artificial intelligence, etc. In addition, a natural language processing technology (NLP) called Botika will also be unveiled at the exhibition.

Many people currently view flying taxis as a means of transportation for the elite, but as long as the transportation needs of the general public are taken into consideration during the initial design phase, this type of technology will have the opportunity to become part of the public transportation system and benefit more people.