'Flying car' to feature as Wagga Wagga: Beyond 2050 conference comes to town
Written by Andrew Mangelsdorf - article originally published by the Daily Advertiser here.
28 July 2023
Committee 4 Wagga chair Adam Drummond and CEO Scott Sanbrook at the CSU Playhouse which will host a "flying car" as part of a conference of the future to be held there next week. Picture by Les Smith
Wagga will get a glimpse into what our future could look like in the coming decades as one of the front runners for the country's first ever flying car comes to town next week.
The Wagga Wagga: Beyond 2050 conference will focus on the way innovation could create a more resilient, sustainable and liveable community as we journey into the future.
Committee 4 Wagga chairman Adam Drummond the event will look at emerging technologies that will affect city infrastructure and industries such as construction, farming, real estate, the property markets and logistics such as transport and travel.
"The exciting thing is the speakers are providing live demonstrations on the day," Mr Drummond said.
"One of those demonstrations will give delegates the opportunity to see one of the front-runners in the race for the first vertical take-off and landing aircraft which is a little like a flying car."
Dubbed Vertiia, the vehicle is being developed by AMSL, with speaker Russell Hoore to outline its potential, while CASA will explain the regulatory framework around approval of the new aircraft.
"That will actually be on stage at the Riverina Playhouse on the day, which is really exciting," he said.
Mr Drummond said the first instance of that aircraft being used is likely to be for transporting medical patients.
Another highlight of the conference will be digital twinning.
"That is a way of creating photo-realistic replicas of cities and also houses," Mr Drummond said.
"People can use virtual reality headsets to walk through houses and change colours, floor coverings and things like that which will be helpful in the in the building industry.
"From a city planning perspective it can also help create a digital [representation] of the Gobba Bridge being duplicated and what traffic flow looks like in real time."
A glimpse into the Vertiia 'flying car' which will be on display at Wagga next week. Picture contributed
Andrew Hagan from CSU's extended reality division is also going to be showcasing some further groundbreaking tech.
"He will be doing live demonstrations [developed only in the past few weeks] of simulations in front of the audience, which will be really exciting," Mr Drummond said.
Telstra will also be giving a presentation on the digital transformation of regional towns.
"That is going to be exciting because it'll show the capability of what what regional centres are going to be able to do over the next couple of decades," Mr Drummond said.
The conference will be held at CSU Riverina Playhouse next on Thursday. Visit committee4wagga.com.au for more.