The Vision from Mercedes-Benz comes equipped with a set of detachable rooftop drones to make the last steps of a delivery smooth, reliable and efficient.

It works on both ends, too: the drones can load up the compact freight vehicle from a distribution center then detach and deliver goods at a destination. Packages can be taken out of the back or simply raised through a hatch in the roof and handed off to a waiting unmanned aerial vehicle.

In a future where driverless vehicles are an impending reality, the design makes sense: it obviates the need for human intervention anywhere in the delivery cycle. The deliveries would also be more predictable, which is helpful for waiting consumers, and easier in cities, where parking can be hard to find.

“With the Vision Van we are presenting the intelligent, clean and fully interconnected van of the future”, said Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. “The Vision Van integrates many concrete concepts for future delivery operations in the urban environment.”

“We are integrating the intelligence of a state-of-the-art logistics depot into a van,” Mornhinweg continued. “We estimate that this vehicle would enable an increase in productivity of up to 50 per cent in last-mile delivery services.”

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Somewhere between a luxury car and a personal airplane, the Lilium is a two-seat electric vehicle designed to take off and land vertically, obviating the need for runways and making it a candidate for flying to and from your suburban driveway.

Developed in a European Space Agency business incubator in Bavaria, Germany, the flier is scheduled for release in 2018 and will be the first of its kind.

The fixed-wing design will likely be limited initially to conventional airports, despite its advanced capabilities, but its makers hope that as adoption of the new technology grows new laws will also be made to accommodate fresh capacities for departure and landing anywhere. As of now, the Lilium only needs a patch about 50 by 50 feet to get off and back onto the ground, and has a cruising speed of 250 miles per hour (and range of over 300 miles) – definitely more than your typical commuter car.

“Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life,” said Lilium CEO and cofounder Daniel Wiegand. “We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport. To reduce noise and pollution, we are using electric engines so it can also be used close to urban areas.”

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Pyramidal and otherworldly in its shape, this concept yacht is not as impossible as it appears, seeming to lift almost entirely off the water in the design renderings by Jonathan Schwinge. More than just an aesthetic ideal, the resulting experience would be faster and smoother for passengers.

The Tetra yacht (short for tetrahedron), uses foils for lift, it begins from the water as it increases speed, ultimately reducing drag from the surface and allowing the vessel to cruise faster, then setting back down on its main hull when stopped or slowed.

A narrow strut is dropped as the vehicle lifts, then retracted as it comes down. From an engineering standpoint, the design does not require new technologies, just dynamic redeployment of existing structural approaches, transforming to each configuration of use.

From the team behind the Tetra: “The design is instigated by the re-thinking of the form, superstructure and propulsion of the modern superyacht into a radically simple enclosure and an elevated mode of travel above the water line. The concept design of this HYSWAS craft is based upon an existing hull design that has been developed by several companies, notably the Maritime Applied Physics Corporation in America.”

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Some drones fly in the air, others zoom across or through the water, but this rare hybrid does both with graceful ease, diving underwater then returning to the skies on demand.

Created by Oakland University’s Embedded Systems Research, the Loon Copter works much like a regular flying drone, and can also land and float easily on the water thanks to a bouyancy chamber filled with air.

However, it can also fill that chamber up, allowing it to sink, then flip its rotors to propel it through the water. To fly, it ejects the ballast and goes airborne again. Faster than a submarine, it can scout in the water, then return to and hover above the surface for rescure or recovery operations.

Its creators are working on extending its wireless range to allow it to go even further below the waves. More from its makers: “Loon Copter is a novel multi-rotor platform capable of traditional aerial flight, on-water surface operation, and sub aquatic diving. The Loon Copter is a proof-of-concept vehicle that demonstrated successful operation in early 2015. The 3rd prototype of our Loon Copter won the 2016 UAE Drones for Good competition in Dubai, which received 1017 entries from 165 countries.”

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To combat the rise of drone-enabled crime, London’s Metropolitan Police force is considering using trained eagles to grab drones, a practice already in play thanks to Dutch company Guard from Above. Tests in the Netherlands have demonstrated the efficacy of this approach, which could be employed to stop criminals using drones to infiltrate prisons and intercept airplanes.

The risks are many: there are already cases of drones being used to smuggle contraband or means of escape assistance into well-fortified prison complexes. Officials are also worried that drones could be deployed to attack aircraft, intentionally or accidentally (a series of near-misses is already on record).

Of course, there are problems with this approach: grabbing a drone means risks to the eagle, who may face various configurations and numbers of blades.  They will need special training to avoid the most dangerous parts of a given drone. Still, as the video demonstrates, it can be done. Whether this will remain a gimmick or really take off remains to be seen.

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