Uber’s ambitions are rather impressive, the taxi company revealed its plans for flying taxi by 2023, said Dara Khosrowshah, Uber’s CEO.
The flying taxi-service will be launched in 2023, Uber’s goal is a lofty one, though other companies are chasing similar flying taxi. Among this idea’s adepts is Kitty Hawk, backed by Google’s founder, Larry Page. the idea is really brilliant, however, regulatory issues remain the largest hurdle for VTOL type of vehicles. Whatever, Uber still has a hope to ease some of this with a recent NASA partnership to manage future flying taxi fleets.
Uber Elevate is Uber’s all-encompassing term for its initiative to launch uberAIR, which is its aerial electric ride-hailing service, as well as any other types of delivery services that may benefit from air transport. No traffic jams at all!
At the Uber Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, Mr Khosrowshahi admitted he wasn’t initially 100 percent on board for Elevate but for him, ‘the aha moment’ came when he started understanding that Uber isn’t just about cars.
“Ultimately, where we want to go is about urban mobility and urban transport, and being a solution for the cities in which we operate,”
Uber CEO said.
Air taxi will feature battery-electric power and be capable of reaching elevations of 1,000 to 2,000 feet in the air. Once Uber’s vision is fully implemented, Uber says the service will be cheaper than the cost of owning a car, on a per-passenger, per-mile basis, and autonomous.
Such start-ups are still unsure whether Uber will prove to be an ally, a rival or just full of hot air.
“I’m very excited a big partner like Uber is in this space,”
said Maryanna Saenko, an investor at DFJ, a Silicon Valley venture-capital company that has previously backed Tesla and SpaceX. “It’s great to create buzz and excitement. It’s even better to execute on it.”
