Flying vehicles coming to Central Florida by year’s end, Gov. Ron DeSantis says

Operators will be “actively testing” flying vehicles in Central Florida aerospace by the end of the year, officials said as they championed the new technology taking off in Florida.

“We’re at the age of flying cars. Think about a future where you have another option on I-4 to get from Orlando to Tampa,” said Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue.

Perdue joined Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials at a news conference held at Auburndale’s SunTrax Advanced Air Mobility and Autonomous and Connected Transportation Testing Grounds.

“You don’t need a runway. It’ll lift straight up. It’ll go. These happen to be electric powered, which is very quiet,” DeSantis said about what makes eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft so special. “So you can take these and drop them into a major city without having a disruption like you would with a helicopter.”

DeSantis highlighted how the “Uber taxi in the air” will help the state transport people and cargo, and assist in emergencies.

“Right now we are standing on one of two vertiports that make up the nation’s first dedicated advanced air mobility aerial test track,” DeSantis said.

The SunTrax facility is also testing autonomous self-driving vehicles, which are appearing in Miami and Orlando as Waymo and other companies tap into the market.

At the testing facility, “we can simulate dry and raining conditions, crowded urban environments, pedestrian crossings, hills and dips and other conditions that autonomous systems will encounter when they are operating in our community,” DeSantis said. “We’re proud to be working with the companies developing this technology.”

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Polk State College are partnering with the state to help with workforce training for pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle maintainers, officials added.

DeSantis’ news conference wasn’t complete without a famous line from “Back to the Future.”

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads,” DeSantis said.