With an eye to actually deploying this thing as a personal flying taxi some time in the future, it has made some revisions and this week unveiled a sleeker Volocopter 2, which it plans to start testing next year. 

Much like the Ehang taxi drone that is expected to start ferrying passengers around Dubai in July, the Volocopter 2 is an all-electric aerial mobility machine that takes up to two passengers from point A to point B without a pilot. It lifts off and lands vertically and can hover in place if need be, powered by nine independent batteries.

The second iteration of the ambitious Volocopter doesn't look all that different to the first, though e-volo does describe its appearance as more sporty. Whatever the aesthetics, the company says that the Volocopter 2 is its first series model and part of a "consequent evolution" of its earlier prototype toward everyday use. This means it runs on swappable batteries so it can take off again within minutes if it runs out of juice.