Uber officials to brief Prabhu on intracity air taxi service plan
NEWDELHI:Senior officials of ride hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. will meet trade and civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday to make a formal presentation about Uber’s plan to start intra-city aerial taxi service in India to facilitate urban mobility and reduce road congestion.
Eric Allison, Global CEO at Uber Aviation Programs and Nikhil Goel, head of product of aviation at Uber who are in Delhi to attend India’s first Global Mobility Summit organized by the NITI Aayog will discuss the proposal with Prabhu, a senior government official said under condition of anonymity.
“The Uber officials are also likely to communicate their view on the government’s recently announced drone policy,” the official added.
An Uber spokesperson did not respond to calls and messages.
While Uber is keen to deliver food to households using drones through its Uber Eats business, the newly announced drone policy of India does not allow use of drones for out-of-sight operations.
However, junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha will be heading a committee to regulate out-of-sight drone operations under the second-generation licensing policy for drones. Uber under its Uber Elevate programme has named Dallas and Los Angeles in the US as the first two cities for the commercial launch of its aerial taxi service by 2023 and has been on the lookout to select another international city as its third partner. Uber has shortlisted five countries—India, Japan, Australia, Brazil and France—and one of them will become the first Uber Air City outside of the US.
Speaking at the India Ideas Summit organised by the US-India Business Council in Mumbai on Wednesday, Allison said the 100-minute road journey from the city airport in the western suburbs to downtown Churchgate in South Mumbai can come down to 10 minutes using the futuristic service.