Flying taxis will be cheaper than driving a car, says Uber

Flying taxis will be cheaper than driving a car, says Uber

By James Titcomb 25 APRIL 2017 • 6:31PM

Uber has claimed that ordering a flying taxi will one day be cheaper than taking a journey in a car as it laid out an ambitious vision for tests of aerial vehicles.

The ride-hailing company said it is planning to start trials of its "UberAIR" service in 2020 in Dubai and Dallas. It plans to let passengers order trips in flying cars in the same way that they can order rides from the four wheeled land-based versions today.

"Urban aviation is a natural next step for Uber in this pursuit, which is why we are working to make 'push a button, get a flight' a reality,"  Uber's chief product officer Jeff Holden said. He suggested that flying cars would be quicker, more environmentally-friendly and above all cheaper than ordering or driving a car in the future.

He claimed that when Uber first introduces the flight service, a journey will be roughly the same cost as an Uber car trip today, but said that eventually it will go so low that it will be even cheaper than the cost of the fuel required to drive one's own car.

It envisions a network of autonomous electric air vehicles that can take off and land vertically, silently ferrying passengers across cities and on their commutes.

"We’re turning it into something we think will be a daily phenomenon," Holden said. "People are wasting an insane amount of time in their cars."

On Tuesday, at a press conference in Texas, Uber announced partnerships with a number of aircraft manufacturers including Embraer and Bell Helicopter to help develop vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

Uber expects that its service will be most used by commuters, demonstrating a commute from San Jose to San Francisco that would take a few minutes, compared to over an hour by car.

A number of start-ups are already developing personal aerial vehicles, some of which have demonstrated successful tests of the technology.

Uber's optimistic vision of the future came as a welcome distraction to the scandals embracing the company and its chief executive Travis Kalanick in recent weeks.

On Monday, it emerged that Apple had threatened to remove the Uber app from the iPhone's App Store after it was found to be tagging iPhones in breach of Apple's rules.



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