Your future apartment may have a drone landing pad

Waiting for the lift can take so long. How would you like your own drone landing pad on your balcony?

We’ve been promised personalised flying cars since the early days of science fiction, but it now looks like designers are actually planning for it.

If these concepts from engineer and inventor Charles Bombardier are turned into a reality, you’ll be able to step out onto your apartment balcony, into a drone and head straight to work without having to make nice with the neighbours (if that’s something that bothers you).

No strangers to innovative transport design — Charles’ grandfather invented the caterpillar track snowmobile — the Bombardier family have been at the forefront of transport design for over 70 years. So, this latest idea may turn out to be more than just a pipe dream.

Bombardier developed his Drone Tower concept with Indian industrial designer Ashish Thulkar, who has a number of previous projects focused on nifty improvements to public transportation. And it taps into a real need for integrated transport systems to serve the increasing population of high-rise communities in the major capitals.

Recently, San Francisco developer Perkmerced teamed up with Uber to offer another smart transport solution. Apartment residents are given a monthly $100 allowance for transport providing they go car-free. They can use the money for whatever transport they chose, so long as at least $30 of it is spent with Uber. In turn, Uber caps their fares for trips to the nearest public transport terminal.

Parkmerced planned a reduction in parking spaces within the 8,900 apartment development, which results in fewer cars and therefore a quicker commute for all.

As for drones collecting you from your balcony, we’re not sure just how long it will take for apartments to include this as standard. But we certainly like the innovative thinking.