One of the classic issues facing innovators is that because their ideas are new, their products aren’t always ‘legal,’ because they don’t fit any of the traditional definitions of a product under existing rules.
So the engineers at Terrafugia, the company making the Transition, the ‘flying car,’ must have been happy when they recently found out that the U.S. Department of Transportation had temporarily exempted their vehicle from certain provisions of the federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Specifically, the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exempted Terrafugia’s vehicle from specific tire selection and rim requirements, as well as other requirements concerning airbags and windshields.
The DOT granted the three-year “hardship” exemption because it bought the argument from Terrafugia that its attempt to comply with DOT regulations at the same time as Federal Aviation Administration rules would be prohibitively expensive.
Terrafugia had argued that an exemption would allow it more time to research more appropriate solutions to the requirements at the same time as making the flying car a feasible project.
The company, an MIT spin-off located in Woburn, Mass. intends to use motor-cycle tires and rims instead of tires usually used for regular cars. The purpose is to minimize the weight of the craft.
Despite the good news, as The Register notes, the craft has faced a number of delays in production, and can only accomodate a load of 330 lbs.
Nevertheless, Terrafugia has told the DOT that it expects to deliver the first commercially-available versions of the Transition in late 2012, and to subsequently produce 200 vehicles in the next three years. It expects to create 500 manufacturing, engineering and support jobs.
Below is footage from Terrafugia showing Transition in action.
It’s hard not to think “Holy Smokes, Batman!” when watching the wings unfold.
