The Volocopter has the potential to bring together many features we expect in a true flying car of the future: It’s simple to fly. It’s stable. Its 18 rotors provide a lot of redundancy against system failures. It doesn’t require a runway and it’s powered by batteries, making it emissions-free (especially if you charge them with renewable energy). OK, fine, strictly speaking it isn’t a flying car, because you can’t drive it on the ground, but who cares? It flies.

The e-Volo team is working on an upgrade of the entire system in preparation for that first manned flight. The structure and architecture are essentially the same as they were in 2013, but the inner workings have been thoroughly upgraded. “We’re assembling a new electronic flight-control system, and a new battery system,” says CEO Alexander Zosel.