The flying boats are coming

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We all love a good start-up success story. While this one is yet to lift off the ground (no pun intended), a French company have raised 500,000 Euros (around $735,000 AUD) in venture capital to create a Tesla/Uber-style flying boat.

The company is called Sea Bubbles, and they hope that one day you will be able to summons your own self-driving hovercraft to fly you across the water to a destination of your choice. Sea Bubbles is set to start its roll out in Paris, with the creators hoping to fly users across the Seine River by 2017. Bloomberg reports the company are in talks with Uber to bring Sea Bubbles to the rest of the world, but no commitments have yet been made. Watch this space!

The prototype makes use of all the latest sustainable and innovative technologies. Much like the Tesla, the Sea Bubble will be self-driving and battery-operated, with the company striving towards a zero-emissions target. The vehicle is also designed to operate silently and smoothly, creating no waves and preventing extra erosion to river walls.

flying boat

Similar to Uber, you will be able to conveniently hail a hovering cab from your smart phone whenever you want to travel. Will it be an affordable service? We won't know until a decision is reached as to whether the company will operate on its own accord or sell to an already-established ride-sharing service like Uber or Lyft.

Will this be the future of overseas travel? At the moment the vehicle is only designed to travel at speeds of up to 25 knotts, which is just over 46km/hr. It'd be a painfully slow way to cross an ocean, so perhaps in time with greater funding the Sea Bubble will be the international passenger carrier of the future.

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Steph Nash was a staff writer at Money until 2017.