Honda is so much more than just a car company. Yes, it makes vehicles like the recently revealed Civic Hatchback, but the Japanese automaker has far more lofty goals. The company is working on autonomous taxi services and also builds robots, motorcycles, boats, and jets. At the same time, the giant is developing new electric vehicles and working on autonomous driving systems, but now many of these technologies are being combined in new ventures. The company has just announced that it wants to send people to outer space, but before that happens, there are other things to perfect first, the most exciting of which is a network of flying taxis with the ability to take off vertically.

Honda wants to create an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for relatively short trips and a gas turbine hybrid-electric VTOL for longer journeys. These will be accessible from your smartphone, just as you'd summon an Uber in today's world. Honda says that the small size of the fans and their near-silent operation will allow for city use without massive disruption from noise and wind. As part of this, Honda envisions a world where air traffic control can communicate directly with these vehicles and warn them of potential traffic hazards, as unusual as these may be in the air. Thus, the vehicle can ask the occupants if they'd like to alter their route for a quicker one.

Honda's past work on robots, jets, autonomous drive technologies, sustainable fuels, and even Formula 1's high-speed generators will all come into play here.

At present, regulations and the short range of electric vehicles mean that this is not yet viable, but just its autonomous robotaxis, the tech is continually being advanced and seems very plausible under Honda's plan. The company has also announced its continued development work on robots that will be crucial for unmanned lunar expeditions, immediate medical response, and more. That brings us to the last part of the plan, which is going to space. Honda wants to build small, reusable rockets to launch low-Earth-orbit satellites. There's been loads of work on this over the past few years and loads more to come, but Honda aims to have all of this fully operational by 2030.