UBER Flying Cars are here to Stay

UBER Flying Cars are here to Stay

Uber, the Taxi Aggregator now wants to fly you around the cities at a reasonable cost, but still, there are roadblocks to overcome before UberAir can take flight.

Uber is planning to get flying cars off the silver screen and put that into our skies in as little as two years. It's a lofty ambition, but Uber has partnered with the great and big names in aviation and picked up NASA alumni to help them on this.

So, the new baby in town will be called UberAir. A future transport network out of science fiction that can fly you across the city in just a fraction of minutes and will be on-demand like Uber rides. A simple tap the app, click on the button and you are done Fight is booked. 

This may sound like a joke or a prank, but Uber is quite serious about this ambitious project at least as per the Uber's head of aviation, Eric Allison who was quoted saying - "The vehicles are past the research phase and are now at a point where they'll be employed commercially."

But still few things need answering like how ow will the modern smart cities adapt to a taxi taking off from every skyscraper?  What will be the cost associated with this new advancement and how much will the end user pay for this on-demand air taxi.?

In a world where big names like NASA, SpaceX etc are planning to take mankind to Mars, moon and other parts of this galaxy and our universe (if we take a broad scope of this) then how should this dream of air taxi be considered and taken up and what's the real deal about this.

But if we go by the trends and the latest advancement in the industry this will be a reality and is closer than one can think.

The technology behind Uber's brand new aircraft is known as eVTOL, that stands for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing. This modern design will comprise of four sets of twin rotors that will be used for vertical lift and a single rotor for forwarding propulsion. It would cruise/fly at speeds of 150 to 200 miles per hour at an altitude ranging 1,000 to 2,000 feet and could travel 60 miles on a single charge but would more likely be partially charged in between short hops around the city.

The aircraft would land on a rooftop (known as a "Skyport" in Uber's world) and charge its battery while passengers aboard the taxis.

UBER Flying Cars are here to Stay

Currently, the big deal is batteries that they are planning to use for this project as they are not much efficient and fast to take up this task smoothly. But as seen in Tesla cars that Elon (Musk) showcased at various events, we can consider using the Lithium Ion based or similar tech to bring this project to life that will run on electricity and will be a clean mode of transportation.

Coming to the cost per ride that will play a key role in making this tech a hit or miss, as per the company they plan to keep it around $2-$6 per mile which they claim to be cheaper than the UberX. If that comes out to be true, then this will be a sure shot hit amongst the masses.

Some other factors that need to be considered are Noise Level and as per Uber this aircraft would be 32 times quieter than a standard helicopter and with advancements, they plan to further bring it down.

In 2017, Uber announced partnerships with Bell, Karem, Embraer, Pipistrel Vertical Solutions and Aurora Flight Sciences (owned by Boeing) to develop the vehicles. 

By 2020, Uber plans to run its first test flights, before rolling out UberAir final trials in 2023. For these trails they have shortlisted 3 pilot cites out of hic the two are Los Angeles & Dallas and they are still yet to decide the 3rd one. And Uber is not the only player in this segment a lot of big names like Google, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce Plc. have already started their work on the same.

So, this new baby of Uber has a lot of things to do and even hurdles to cross before they give it a final nod. This sounds so amazing and creepy at the same time because after jamming the roads of our beautiful planet Earth we humans are gearing up to overcrowd the sky as well. Let's hope this becomes a reality asap and bring along a lot of new experiences and ways to keep the travel fun and safe for all.

#Future #Transport #UBER #AirTaxi #Technology #Travel #FlyingCar