American Tech Giant and ride-sharing company Uber is recently developing an aerial ride-sharing service under its ‘Uber Elevate’ programme, which seeks to address the problem of road congestion in major cities. Uber announced 5 countries in which it is planning to launch this air taxi service besides the US: Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, and France.
“Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore are some of the most congested cities in the world, where traveling even a few kilometers can take over an hour,” Uber said in a press release. “Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it.”
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| Uber Elevate: Aerial Taxi Service |
Elevate, the company's new venture all about aerial taxis will allow its passengers to take short aircraft rides of about some hundred kilometers. Uber has planned to launch this service in Dallas, Los Angeles and one international destination by 2023. Experts believe Indian cities’ mounting road traffic woes make the country a perfect market for Elevate.
Yugal Joshi, vice-president at Texas-based consultancy group Everest said that options were limited at the beginning which included China and several Southeast Asian nations. Facing several challenges in Europe, its biggest market is now in India, outside the US.
Uber Elevate plans to have the demonstration flight in 2020 and start commercial service in 2023. Its partners include aircraft manufacturers such as Embraer, Bell, Aurora Flight Sciences, Pipistrel Aircraft, and Karem, which will develop Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (e-VTOL) vehicles. Uber’s e-VTOL requirements specify that the vehicle has a cruising speed of 150-200 mph, a cruising altitude of 1,000-2,000 feet, and the capability to do trips of up to 60 miles on a single charge. “Our launch markets are Dallas and Los Angeles. We are looking for a third city outside the U.S. Five countries are in our short-list: Australia, Brazil, France, India and Japan,” Mr. Allison said.
He said Uber’s objective was to move people in the air at a cost comparable to other modes of mobility. “We are working with global firms for the long-term future of this project. They can develop mega sky ports that can handle 1,000 landings per hour,” he said.
Already, such a service has existed in Bengaluru since March this year, with helicopters slicing the two-hour road commute between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport to a mere 15 minutes for Rs4,130 per person. A similar heli-taxi service cut down the four-hour Chandigarh-Shimla journey, too, to just 20 minutes by air. The short-term fares are likely to be around Rs200 per kilometer. Uber believes this could fall to Rs50, The Economic Times newspaper reported.
For one, there are the infrastructural troubles. Considering the flying vehicles will be 100% electric, India will require a vigorous electrical matrix and a suite of battery-charging areas. Uber itself is yet to figure out the code on making a shoddy, durable, fast charging battery that is sufficiently intense to run these business rides. What's more, in principle, Uber's air cabs would take off from its own sky ports worked on elevated structures. Developing an immense system of these stations of sorts will probably be a huge assignment in a nation where spans take 20 years to assemble.