Inside Alef, the company trying to build a car you can both drive and fly

Alef Aeronautics is in the early stages of developing a vehicle it hopes will both drive on roads and fly above them.
It is a rare exception in the competitive field of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which, despite often being dubbed as “flying cars,” aren’t meant for operating on the ground.
“eVTOLs are pretty much electric helicopters. We’re trying to build a car which can vertically take off and fly efficiently,” Jim Dukhovny, Alef Aeronautics’ co-founder and CEO, told CNBC Tech: The Edge in an interview.
In 2015, the team behind Alef met for the first time in a coffee shop, where Dukhovny scribbled the idea for his flying car down on a napkin. Eight years later, they are still building.
“If everything goes right, if we have enough funds, if the legislation does not get worse ... we plan to start production of the first one by the end of 2025.”
Unlike its eVTOL competitors, however, Alef will need to get approval from two regulators: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The company’s most notable backer is venture capitalist Tim Draper, who was an early investor in both Tesla, SpaceX as well in Theranos. Dukhovny said it took Draper about a year to send over a check.
“Tim wanted to make sure that not only it makes sense business wise. He wanted to make sure it made sense engineering wise too.”
Alef is also taking pre-orders. For a $150 deposit, customers get on a list to purchase its Model A when it becomes commercially available. Dukhovny told CNBC there are currently 3,000 customers on its waitlist.
Owning one of Alef’s flying vehicles, however, will carry a heavy price tag of $300,000.
“The price tag came from costs, what it takes us to make one today. We make it pretty much here, handmade, a lot of man hours and so on,” Dukhovny said.
Watch the video for the rest of CNBC Tech: The Edge’s interview with Alef Aeronautics’ Jim Dukhovny and Director of R&D Oleg Petrov.

[@CNBCi]

*Thank you for watching. This video is a part of a four-part CNBC Tech series on eVTOLS. You can check out the other parts below:* • What are eVTOLS? The evolution of 'flying cars' explained - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZivc32mo9J0pZo • Inside Lilium, the German company trying to revolutionize air travel - kzbin.info/www/bejne/apnbnGZmd7mqnbs • Take a ride inside Ehang’s fully autonomous, two-seater air taxi - kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnOmommAfLCki8k

[@Daniel-es2qy]

To quote Neil deGrasse Tyson, "we already have flying cars, they're called helicopters."

[@redbean9410]

thats not a car it can't drive on the roads. NDT isn't as smart or witty as he thinks he is

[@abdullahpatel6086]

@@redbean9410I think that he was just highlighting the fact that we don’t need cars. Of course he knows that helicopter s are not cars.

[@rq3849]

Most people can barely drive, let alone fly.

[@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403]

Ideally, you'd just be a passenger and computers would take over. That's not the biggest hurdle to overcome. The biggest hurdle, at least in my eyes, is what's powering something that's going to lift two people plus a car in the air?

[@Betweoxwitegan]

​@@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403This whole idea is a joke, this company is going to go bust no doubt. They will not get approval, the design, vehicle and concept itself is a joke. We need less cars, not flying cars FFS. They built an inefficient vehicle and are branding it to rich elitists to equate status, much like a cybertruck.

[@mistermind8170]

This will be another Theranos .

[@jimmydishkawnt]

They look like a 'fly by night' kind of operation 😅

[@johnjakson444]

utter load of bollux journalism

[@moon3173]

if a startup can't make it happen in 10yrs, they almost never will

[@User_uxetsht]

One question they can never explain is where are they going to put the battery ?

[@FortuneOnyeachonam-ps4zw]

Right??? 😭

[@David-vq6qg]

Or better yet. Where are they getting the batteries from?

[@happyboss555]

I love their fund-raising capability

[@anthonyjones7264]

The fact that people dont understand we already have flying cars. Shows that people dont know what a flying car actually is. They keep assuming ot should go from driving to flying but thats not really the case. In the Jetsons the ONLY time you see the car driving is when it lands or takes off. When they drive it its actually being flown.

[@_Digitalguy]

This is not going to work for private use, not in our lifetime, and not so much because of technology but because of regulation. it's not just the fact that drivers should be licenced as pilots too, but that regulation will not allow taking off or landing anywhere, so the apparent convenience of this vs an elicopter is questionable, especially as this will also have disadvantages vs an elicopter in terms of fuel quantity etc. (so only short trips). I can only see this as niche corpotate vehicoles talking off and landing as specific locations , for short distances and being able to drive when needed in certain places where you cannot land or take off.

[@AyedYoutube]

imagine working in a high rise building in an era of drunk drivers on flying cars

[@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403]

The solution to what you're saying is simple: we wouldn't be driving/flying them, a computer would. Imagine a network of flying cars, all talking to each other. Now, of course, I can also imagine someone hacking into the system and getting thousands of flying cars to crash into each other, but let's just ignore that possibility! 😂😂😂 In a world where computers are flying us around, we wouldn't have to worry about us crashing. It's honestly the only way this could even be feasible.

[@ifepopson]

This is weird but this guy looks like a scammer lol. Giving me theranos vibes

[@chriskim7123]

Lol FR

[@jbridgepro6962]

Talk about missed opportunity. This should have been posted on April 1st. Would've made more sense 😅...

[@stickynorth]

Way to drop the Theranos name like a bucket of cold water on this fever dream project...

[@SuperRobertoClemente]

I am not believing a word of what this guy says until I see that thing actually move. They're not going to get a cent from investors with a report like this-- if that car could drive or fly, they would show the damn reporter!

[@dwnrange7812]

They never show this thing actually flying, or driving for that matter. And people think this actually works??!!

[@EdwardChew]

How the 2 guys answered the lady's question and when he showed it flying sideways... screams sxxm 😂😂😂 this is not gonna work!

[@JigilJigil]

This is a joke or scamm or both.

[@Engagenumberone]

Agreed.

[@tiramisu8359]

holy, this guy epitome of rubbing hand juice lmao.

[@hartmetall515]

It may be technically possible,but people need to understand that creating vertical thrust is extremely inefficient energywise

[@TheBestDealsIl]

I sew a different interview were he explains exactly how it will work.

[@seanhardman1964]

how do you get in it

[@chris12321222]

Great, now I have to deal with the DMV and the FAA

[@vexkiddy]

It looks like the 60s bat mobile

[@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403]

The biggest issue I see with this ever becoming a reality is, what's going to power it. Lifting two people, plus the car itself in the air TAKES A TON OF ENERGY!!! Batteries simply don't have the density needed to make this feasible. You'd have to keep adding more batteries, which makes it heavier, requiring more batteries and you're caught in a vicious cycle. Either we find a way for batteries to hold 10 times the amount of energy they currently can or it's just not feasible. The other options are jet fuel and nuclear power. Honestly, jet fuel seems to most feasible. I mean, we already use it for helicopters. It's tech already being used. Nuclear clearly has enough power, but do we really want to deal with two flying cars powered by nuclear batteries crashing into each other? We need a major, MAJOR energy advancement before something like a flying car will be in everyone's garage. You basically need nuclear power without the issues that arise if two nuclear powered cars crash into each other.

[@ih8temoney]

If there were thousands, even millions different flying cars with different characteristics, wouldn't there be a major issue with vortices, coming off one craft and reacting with another craft in a negative way. Vortices can effect Helicopter when landing and other aircraft causing fatal accidents.

[@phd8296]

I feel design wise, they trying to make it look like a car, even though it might make no sense to go this route.

[@tetzet3254]

It actually works when you dreaming inside the car

[@anderbeau]

I don’t think drones carrying people is too far off 👍🏼

[@throwawaydude3470]

Flying cars would have saved Bin Laden from having to go through TSA

[@cnicetune11]

Less traffic when we all start flying? Probably more deaths more likely. Logistically, how do we all just start flying from different routes? Imagine a million personal planes going to work each day. We will get there but still a long way out from all of us having access to this technology.

[@user-fi8ks8yv9r]

So it's a quadcopter that looks like a car?

[@outtersteller]

This guy.... Lol Just run, screaming scam

[@youtubeprofile2070]

These guys don't inspire confidence. To me they sound like they don't really know how to make it work. 😅

[@cnicetune11]

They look like a bunch of kids tinkering with electronics.

[@CreatingCreations]

Those guys are either really bad at communicating or really bad engineers. I don’t think they understand what they are making 😂

[@NnaemekaAmamasi]

My company is sueing me for this presentation, since the 'car' was never actually airborne!

[@CK-wo1ly]

They couldn't even show it driving?

[@kenyup7936]

because they didnt show us how it can fly, that's why I don't trust it,im not sure if it's a joke or prank or something

[@eugp4198]

Not that optimistic about this kind of product, especially if the business can't be scaled to a wider market

[@kennylee7962]

300k, nothing inside but the air, no answer how it works, hand made in garage. Something that levitates people to the air is hand..made…

[@jovani6044]

This guy sounds like Gru

[@KingAlphaOmega]

Funny design to hide fans in it What a scammer lol

[@glennalexon1530]

Even if it could fly, it wouldn’t be a car. Three-wheelers are motorcycles. Read a book.

[@anderbeau]

The front kinda looks like a Tesla model 3 😂

[@ovidiuc4]

Even if this thing would work (obviously it doesn't), driving on those "cool" wheelbarrow wheels is ridiculous.

[@user-tx9zg5mz5p]

😂😂😂

[@ruzzelladrian907]

Flying cars? Will do anything but public transportation like MRT and high speed rail.

[@kasbas5922]

Cash grab ?!!!

[@moon3173]

just another zombicorn

[@rally_furymoments5294]

This is another Con Job 😹. Are u guys kidding?

[@sushilskolia]

no actual flying just theory

[@moon3173]

it's spelled ALEF, but pronounced THERANOS

[@yongchen8204]

what if it is falling off sky or people privacy are in peril. flying car is being around ages., it will not go to happen. we have drone delivery goods bussiness model for 10 years now, yet its bussiness concept has never taken off for the same reason. overcrowding the sky put everyone at risk at the for profit and hobby of the greedy investors and their customers. $300,000 USD per flying car, most working class people cant afford for such expensive toy.

[@MJamilHoque]

China and Japan are ahead.

[@RazzakBospi]

Auto electric helicopter car capacity drive in air earth to moon

[@sean-keithwelsh326]

This POS will never pass a crash test. Then how will it fly in the winter when it's covered in snow and ice?

[@scientificapproach6578]

This is a scam to get investor money. The core design will not fly, those vents make very poor wings. "This is way safer", really and how would you know that when its never flown.

[@cANONLOVISNEVRiDROPDILATwidefl]

as long as it's not a MOLLER SCAM

[@Hypocrites-507]

CNBC champion of human rights why don’t your station show ( end of serfdom in Tibet) in KZbin see how holi man Dalia Lama slave owner treated the serfs in Tibet

[@spartan6931]

Crap

[@manoftomorrow5987]

This will fail in a couple of years…smfh

[@mattsteve7229]

So far, it's just a ponitless box that can't fly yet and is taking longer to produce. Show evidence of it flying and what it can do. Otherwise your nothing but talk

[@santia5893]

its a scam

[@maxtubman6659]

What a joke

[@domxgun]

Need underwater and naval capabilities also 🥱

[@naqshsharma6686]

Scammers

[@forecaster.biz_official]

We still waiting for self driving car… and 2000 passed from 24 years 😊