Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders on Monday said that his company will test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car by the end of the year.

Airbus last year formed a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring concepts such as a vehicle to transport individuals or a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple riders. The aim would be for people to book the vehicle using an app.

"One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground," Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich, adding he hoped the Airbus could fly a demonstration vehicle for single-person transport by the end of the year.

"We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously," he said, adding that Airbus recognized such technologies would have to be clean to avoid further polluting congested cities.

Airbus have been looking skywards to develop ambitious projects that aim to relieve urban congestion.

Participating in these efforts is A^3, the company's advanced projects and partnerships outpost located in the gridlocked Valley. A^3 CEO Rodin Lyasoff, project executive Zach Lovering and their team are pursuing Vahana, a self-piloted flying vehicle platform for individual passenger and cargo transport.

Flight tests of the first vehicle prototype are slated for the end of 2017. As ambitious as that sounds, Lyasoff insists that it is feasible.

Transport service providers are one target group for such vehicles. The system could operate similarly to car-sharing applications, with the use of smartphones to book a vehicle.