It is no secret that Uber has its sights set on self-driving automobiles. Less well known, but possibly revolutionary, are the company’s plans for taxis, which could take to the air.
Uber’s flying-car application, dubbed Elevate, was first shown in an October 2016 white paper, which contained the next unabashedly utopian vision of accessible, affordable flying taxis:
That’s correct: flying taxis for exactly the exact same cost as today rides. Pie in the sky? Maybe. However, Uber reiterated its commitment to the project and provided details regarding testing and operations, this week.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Uber’s Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden announced a venture with NASA to create an air-traffic management system to track and control the low-flying taxis, which will travel at speeds up to 200 miles per hour.
Holden also included the listing of cities targeted for test flights and a city, Los Angeles, joining Dallas and Dubai, starting as early as 2020.
The technical are all currently imposing. They may prove to be insuperable. But you gamble at your peril against Uber.
And speaking of failures, as an aside, Uber’s Holden proffered a bold forecast regarding the Honda sitting in your garage : Individual vehicle ownership is enormously inefficient and will “go away” in the near future. It is a persuasive notion, which ought to unsettle not simply car manufacturers but car owners as well. Sooner or later, when the conclusion of automobile ownership comes into focus, the resale value of those owned cars will plummet.
Reader Reality Check
Driverless cars, to begin with. Then, flying taxis. Are you prepared?