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The mobile phone company Uber has unveiled its vision of the future of urban transport: flying taxis that will transport guests from one roof to the other.
The planned UberAIR service will use electrically powered vehicles – a helicopter part, a drone part and a fixed wing aircraft part – to transport customers around the city.
These aircraft, developed by Boeing and other partners, have multiple small rotors capable of both vertical takeoff and landing and fast horizontal flights.
On-demand air taxis can be ordered by customers via the smartphone app, in the same way that Uber's road tax alternatives are hailed.
They will carry four pbadengers and a pilot, then take off and land from designated roof hubs called "skyports". Ultimately, Uber hopes the plane can fly itself.
"The ever-elusive future of flying cars that we all envisioned is one step closer," said Nikhil Goel, product manager for the company's flying taxi branch, Uber Elevate.
Uber Technologies has announced that it will use Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, as the first international test site for the group's planned flying taxi service.
The company will begin test flights of its unmanned aircraft in Melbourne and the US cities of Dallas and Los Angles in 2020 before the start of commercial operations in 2023.
The test flights will transport pbadengers from one of Melbourne's seven Westfield shopping centers to the city's main international airport.
The 19km drive from the central business district to the airport is expected to take 10 minutes by plane, instead of one hour by car.
It will cost about AUD $ 86, which is $ 20 more than using a regular taxi. In the long run, however, the company claims that UberAIR will transport tens of thousands of people to the cities for the same price as a UberX ride the same distance.
"Our vision is that it will be more economically rational to fly than to drive," said Eric Allison, director of Uber Elevate.
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