We’ve successfully cloned sheep, CRISPR can be used to edit genes, but nothing feels quite as futuristic as flying taxis.

Over the past few months, several flying electric vehicle companies/electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle (eVTOL – aka electric helicopters) companies have been going public – mostly through SPACs.

Funding the takeoff – flying electric vehicles

Electric, flying taxis may seem a long way off, but experts at Deloitte estimate that it could be a $115b industry employing more than 280k people by 2035.

After raising a record $1.3b in private investments in 2020, several of these flying taxi companies took advantage of the SPAC frenzy to go public over the past few months:

• Joby via SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners (RTP
  ) – backed by Uber
• Archer Aviation (ACIC
  ) via Atlas Crest InvestmentACIC
  – investors include United Airlines
• Lilium, a german eVTOL company, via Qell Acquisition CorpQELL
  … Lots of flying taxi companies going public via SPACs – you get the point

Birds aren’t the only obstacle

Investors are being sold on the potential benefits of eVTOLS – i.e. cheaper to operate than traditional helicopters, lots of use cases in transportation/shipping… But we’re still years away from ordering one through our phones.

If flying taxis are going to take off, they’ll have to overcome these hurdles:

• Infrastructure – companies will need to develop landing protocols and charging stations
• Safety – years of testing will be required to meet safety thresholds
• Regulation – the success of eVTOL companies may depend on air traffic regulations

Those aren’t the only obstacles. Stock prices in the flying taxi space have proven to be volatile:

• EHang (EH
  ), a Chinese eVTOL company, has seen its stock fall 70% since Wolfpack Research, a shorter seller, accused EHang of fraud.
• Wisk Aero, another eVTOL startup, filed a lawsuit against Archer Aviation for allegedly stealing their secrets that sent its stock crashing 30%.

For investors… Let’s not fly too far ahead of ourselves

Investors have used SPACs to take early-stage companies public before they’re ready, and that could end up being the case here. eVTOL companies are still in the prototype phase, and they’re nowhere close to turning a profit yet – or even pulling in sales.

Until flying taxi companies launch a usable product, investors can only guess how profitable the industry can become – until then, it remains a highly risky investment.