After upending the taxi market with its ride-hailing service, Uber is now looking to the skies for its next venture — flying taxis. The firm has announced that it plans to deploy its flying taxis in Texas, the United States, and Dubai by 2020. Uber’s flying taxis will be small, electric aircraft that take off and land vertically with zero emissions* and quiet enough to operate in cities. Flying taxis would cut down travel time between San Francisco’s Marina to downtown San Jose to 15 minutes, compared with the more than two hours it takes by road, Uber has estimated. In the longer term, Uber expects the cost of taking flying taxis to fall below car ownership. The company is working with Hillwood Properties to make four vertiports* — VTOL* hubs with multiple takeoff and landing pads, and charging infrastructure — in Dallas starting next year. Uber has also teamed up with companies such as Bell Helicopter, Aurora, Pipistrel, Mooney and Embraer to make the flying taxis. It has also partnered with U.S. electric vehicle charging station maker ChargePoint Inc. Uber is working on developing an exclusive* charger for its network. These VTOL flying cars would include fixed wings with tilt prop-rotors, which also makes for a much quieter ride. Uber says its design will be 15 decibels* quieter than traditional helicopters. And the firm sees using pre-existing urban heliports and skyscrapers as launch and landing pads. Unlike some of the designs on the market, Uber’s has enough room for a pilot and multiple passengers. The firm also included what it believes these crafts will cost — a low production rate of 12 units per year, each unit will run about US$1.2 million. Uber is working with the Dubai government and will conduct passenger flights as part of the World Expo 2020 in Dubai.(SD-Agencies) |