Air travel never involves air travel alone. City to city transport usually goes something like car or cab to train to shuttle to the terminal where you catch a plane, only to reverse the process at the other end, often with a little running somewhere along the line for good measure. Airbus came up with a crazy idea to change all of that with Pop.Up, a conceptual two-passenger pod that clips to a set of wheels, hangs under a quadcopter, links with others to create a train, and even zips through a hyperloop tube.

This crazy concept blurs the once-firm lines between planes, trains, and automobiles to let people take to the skies when traffic backs up. In other words, it's a flying car. A really cool flying car, cooked up with help from Italdesign and unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, but still, a flying car. Farfetched, yes, but Airbus says it is taking the idea seriously. "Adding the third dimension to seamless multi-modal transportation networks will, without a doubt, improve the way we live, and how we get from A to B," said Mathias Thomsen, general manager for urban air mobility at Airbus.

Around town, the carbon fiber pod couples with an electric ground module and rolls along on a rather conventional four wheels. It's autonomous, of course, because everything is in the future. Don't want to creep along in gridlocked traffic? Simply summon an eight-rotor air module that resembles a supersized consumer drone. Clip in, take off, and enjoy a range that, should this technology ever actually work, will max out at about 60 miles. Whatever mode to choose, the Pop.Up parks itself at a recharging station upon arrival.

It all sounds crazy, but some big names see it happening. Dubai, the most superlative of emirates, plans to put people-carrying drones in service later this year. Last year, Uber said it could launch a flying car service within a decade. Such things will help wealthy (and brave) commuters skip over traffic, but don't solve the last mile problem unless your destination boasts a rooftop landing pad. That's where the Pop.Up idea enjoys an edge. It eliminates a key point of friction in multi-modal transportation: changing from one mode to the next. You just chill out in your pod.

Wanna hear the really crazy part? This scheme isn't as far-fetched as you might think.