Hyundai has patented a quadcopter design that can land onto a roof of a car, latch onto it and lift it into the air. According to CarBuzz quoting the patent application, the automaker envisions a number of uses for this invention.
The idea of using a large aerial drone to carry vehicles over the air was largely explored by Hyundai with its all-terrain walk bots in mind. The company has put quite some effort into designing extreme all-terrain vehicles capable of walking (see video), but it still needed a solution to carry them over insurmountable obstacles or simply from point A to point B fast.
Aside from moving around ATVs or even regular cars, such a quadcopter could be used for transporting cargo or act as an emergency charging station the people running out of electricity in remote areas could call upon. Last but not least, the drone could fly ahead in poor visibility conditions and scout out the area so that drivers of less prepared cars could decide how to proceed.
Hyundai hasn’t said anything regarding the mass market prospects of its invention yet.