Uber Shows Off Early Prototypes of Its Flying Taxis; First Demos Slated for 2020
Uber is bringing the world one step closer to the future imagined in cult-favorite films and television shows like "Back to the Future" and "The Jetsons" by developing flying taxis.
A small prototype of the electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle concept (eVTOL), officially known as eCRM-003, was recently shown at the second annual Uber Elevate Summit in Los Angeles.
The vehicle, which is designed as a hybrid of a helicopter and a drone, can go up to over 300 kilometers an hour with a range of 100 kilometers on a single battery charge.
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"Our goal is to radically improve global mobility," Uber Aviation product chief Nikhil Goel said of the project. "We fly a lot so we can prove to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the public that these aircraft are safe," he added.
Uber will be training pilots for the eVTOL although the company plans to develop an autonomous piloting system at some point.
The transportation network company is teaming up with a handful of manufacturers to bring the eVTOL aircraft to life. Brazilian aircraft builder Embraer, which has been building aircraft units for almost five decades, will be one of them.
According to The Verge, the company currently has 19,000 employees across the globe and produces commercial, military, and agricultural aircraft.
While Embraer has been around for a while, Uber's flying taxi concept is still uncharted territory for the company. CEO Paulo Cesar Silva, however, believes that while it is a "great" idea, it is a "big challenge."
Uber is also partnering with Aurora Flight Sciences, which will likely handle the development of the autonomous piloting system. The company's specialty is all about that, having flown over 30 unpiloted flights since its foundation in 1989. Aurora Flight Sciences also managed to fly a military helicopter using a tablet.
The California-based aircraft maker Karem will also be involved. The founder and chairman Abe Karem is known for his pioneer contributions in drone technology enough for him to be deemed the "dronefather."
The company has provided several designs for the eVTOL aircraft including what is called the "Butterfly" concept, which comes in the form of a quad tiltrotor with four large propellers mounted on the wings and tail.
The Butterfly has noticeably larger propellers than some of the other eVTOL prototypes by Karem so that it will not be too demanding for the battery.
This Uber flying taxi will also come with slow-turning rotors that should produce less noise than normal, which should make them ideal for urban residents.
Bell and the Slovenia-based Pipistrel Vertical Solutions will also be teaming up with Uber to realize the flying taxi-peppered future. The former provided a virtual reality simulation of the flying taxi at the Elevate event.
The latter, which has a tiny, electric-powered aircraft available for purchase right now, provided a design that looks like it comes straight from "Star Wars."
Uber hopes to conduct first demonstration flights for Los Angeles in 2020, and they hope to kickstart commercialization three years after that. The idea is for these flying taxis to be hailed by users like the taxis of today.
Uber Aviation programs head Eric Allison hopes that the flying taxis will push people to no longer find the need to own a personal car.
"The rational choice for transportation will be less and less to own and drive a car," he said. "We want to price it so low, it'll be irrational to drive your car," he went on to say.
While all this looks amazing on paper, Futurism said that there is so much work that needs to be done and crucial factors to consider that might take more than two years to settle. This includes the logistics necessary for conducting thousands of flights per day.
While it might be too early to think about all that considering the stage Uber is in the development of its flying taxis, the publication is still excited to see what transportation will be like in a few years with this project fully realized.
