How Honeywell and NXP Are Building the Brains of Future Flying Vehicles

Flying vehicles have long been imagined as the future of personal and urban transportation. At CES 2025, this vision inched closer to reality thanks to a notable partnership between Honeywell and NXP Semiconductors. Together, they showcased advanced control systems specifically designed for next-generation flying vehicles. Unlike the distant promises of previous decades, this collaboration focuses on practical, deployable technologies that can make urban air mobility safer and more reliable. Their joint presentation at CES offered a closer look at the technical progress behind autonomous control, fail-safe systems, and the computing capabilities needed for flying vehicles to operate seamlessly in crowded skies.

Setting the Stage for Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility has attracted growing interest as cities search for new solutions to congestion and sustainability challenges. Flying vehicles, often referred to as eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), are envisioned to operate on short urban and regional routes, carrying passengers or cargo over traffic below. These vehicles demand control systems far more advanced than those used in ground vehicles or even conventional aircraft.

They must constantly sense their surroundings, maintain stability in tight spaces, avoid collisions with other vehicles in three dimensions, and handle unexpected failures in real-time. Honeywell, a trusted name in aerospace systems, brought its expertise in flight-critical avionics. NXP offered its experience in high-performance automotive and industrial processors, providing silicon designed to meet the rigorous safety and speed demands of autonomous flight.

At CES 2025, the companies demonstrated a working prototype of their control platform running on NXP’s S32 processors, integrated with Honeywell’s fly-by-wire technology and autonomous flight software. This combination showcased how advanced computing hardware and aerospace-grade control systems could be merged into a compact, reliable platform fit for lightweight electric aircraft.

How the Joint System Works

The core of the system lies in its ability to process massive amounts of data in real time. Flying vehicles rely on inputs from lidar, radar, cameras, GPS, and inertial sensors. These data streams must be fused to create an accurate picture of the environment, predict the motion of other flying vehicles, and adjust flight controls instantly. The Honeywell and NXP platform manages these demands through a distributed architecture, where several redundant processors run parallel computations. If one processor fails, others take over without disrupting the flight. This redundancy is crucial in flying vehicles, where safety requirements are stricter than those for self-driving cars.

Honeywell contributed its proven flight control algorithms, fault detection routines, and user interfaces, designed for both pilot and autonomous operations. NXP’s role was to provide a processing platform capable of handling complex neural networks, sensor fusion algorithms, and real-time control loops. The S32 family chips are designed to meet automotive functional safety standards (ISO 26262), aligning with the stringent certification requirements in aviation.

During the CES demonstration, the system showed its ability to maintain stability even when simulated sensor faults were introduced. It quickly recalculated flight paths and adapted motor controls to avoid virtual obstacles and maintain altitude—a scenario that would be difficult, if not impossible, with traditional control architectures. The companies emphasized that their design is scalable to support both piloted and fully autonomous vehicles.

Why This Approach Stands Out

This development is notable for addressing two major hurdles of flying vehicles: safety and scalability. Urban air mobility has remained experimental largely due to the challenge of designing systems that can guarantee safety while being affordable and lightweight. Large commercial airliners achieve safety through layers of redundant hardware and crew training, but such approaches are impractical for smaller flying taxis.

The Honeywell–NXP system leverages advances in semiconductor technology to build reliable control into a small footprint. The processors are energy-efficient yet powerful enough to handle the artificial intelligence needed for autonomous navigation. Their modular design allows manufacturers of flying vehicles to adopt the system without designing their own from scratch, speeding up development timelines.

It also moves closer to certification. Honeywell’s background in avionics means the system is being designed with regulatory approval in mind, which is often one of the longest steps in introducing a new type of aircraft. By building on hardware already familiar to regulators through its use in automotive and aerospace, the companies hope to shorten the path to market.

What This Means for the Future

The demonstration at CES 2025 suggests that the dream of flying vehicles could become a practical transportation option within the next decade. The Honeywell–NXP partnership shows that traditional aerospace expertise and modern computing can work together to solve one of the most technically demanding problems in transportation. Urban air mobility companies will still need to address other challenges, such as air traffic management, battery technology, and noise, but control systems are a key enabler.

If widely adopted, this technology could lead to fleets of autonomous flying taxis serving city centers and suburbs, reducing ground traffic and offering faster, more direct commutes. Cargo applications could also benefit, delivering goods across dense areas without clogging streets. Beyond civilian use, the same technology could help in emergency response, disaster relief, and search and rescue missions where fast deployment and precision matter.

The presence of these technologies at CES, a show historically focused on consumer electronics, signals that flying vehicles are moving out of niche aerospace trade shows and into broader public awareness. It reflects how the boundaries between automotive, aviation, and electronics are blurring as everything becomes more software-defined and connected.

Conclusion

At CES 2025, Honeywell and NXP showcased a tested, scalable control system for flying vehicles, combining aerospace and semiconductor expertise. Their collaboration addresses safety and real-time performance, advancing urban air mobility from concept to reality. This innovation lays the groundwork for integrating flying vehicles into daily life as practical solutions for modern cities. As the industry and regulators adapt, such progress marks a clear step toward safer, smarter, and more connected skies, bringing the vision of urban air mobility closer to everyday use.

For more insights into technological advancements in urban mobility, explore Honeywell’s urban air mobility solutions and NXP’s automotive innovations.