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First ‘Flying Car’ to Make Debut at Geneva Motor Show

Visitors look at a prototype (R) and a mock-up of the PAL-V, a flying car developed by Dutch firm PAL-V, at the company's headquarter in Raamsdonksveer on May 30, 2017. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)
Visitors look at a prototype (R) and a mock-up of the PAL-V, a flying car developed by Dutch firm PAL-V, at the company's headquarter in Raamsdonksveer on May 30, 2017. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)
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First ‘Flying Car’ to Make Debut at Geneva Motor Show

Visitors look at a prototype (R) and a mock-up of the PAL-V, a flying car developed by Dutch firm PAL-V, at the company's headquarter in Raamsdonksveer on May 30, 2017. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)
Visitors look at a prototype (R) and a mock-up of the PAL-V, a flying car developed by Dutch firm PAL-V, at the company's headquarter in Raamsdonksveer on May 30, 2017. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

The flying car has become a reality, and pre-orders to buy it for $ 400,000 kicked off last year.

The “PAL-V Liberty” flying car is set to be unveiled at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show on March 9, according to the German news agency (DPA).

According to the Dutch PAL-V International BV, the Liberty is the world's first flying car produced for commercial purposes. Although the car is very much like a helicopter, it can also be driven on land roads. And despite that the final version of the car has been showed, the company still needs to complete the final step for the licensing, production, and sale of the vehicle by approving its adherence to the aviation and land safety regulations.

PAL-V International expects to complete this step in 2019, and then to commence delivering the car to its customers. The company had earlier expected to start delivering the car to customers by the end of 2018.

Although the car can fly, its maximum speed on the ground is up to 100 mph through a 100-horsepower engine. The vehicle can also reach speeds of 62 mph in less than 9 seconds. Its maximum operating speed on the flight mode attains 112 miles per hour at 200 horsepower.

The price of the car starts at $399,000, and there is a special version that will be sold for $599,000 for featuring many additional luxuries. The driver aiming to use this car is required to have both car and airplane driving licenses.

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Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta has offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them, as the tech giant seeks to ramp up its artificial intelligence strategy.

The alleged attempts by Meta to hire OpenAI staffers are the latest signs of a frenzy to hire top engineers to develop AI models, and they come at a time when the Facebook owner is working on building its superintelligence unit to catch up with competitors.

Competition for AI talent has reached a feverish pitch as superstar researchers are being courted like professional athletes on the belief that individual contributors can make or break companies.

"They (Meta) started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team," Altman said on the Uncapped podcast that aired on Tuesday, hosted by his brother. "You know, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than that (in) compensation per year."

"At least, so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman said.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours, and Reuters could not verify the information.

"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Altman said.

His comments come just days after Meta invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI, and hired its top boss, Alexandr Wang, to lead its new superintelligence team.

Meta, once recognized as a leader in open-source AI models, has suffered from staff departures and has postponed the launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competitors like Google, China's DeepSeek and OpenAI.