Uber teams up with Hyundai on electric air taxi

SEOU: US ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc and South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor have teamed up to develop electric air taxis, joining the global race to make small self-flying cars to ease urban congestion.

Global players like Germany’s Daimler, China’s Geely Automobile and Japan’s Toyota have all unveiled investments in startups that aim to deploy electric flying cars capable of vertical takeoff and landing. But there are big technological and regulatory hurdles to the plans.

Uber and Hyundai, for instance, gave widely different timelines for commercialisation, underlining these challenges.

“We’ve been making steady progress towards a goal of launching Uber Air by 2023,“Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, said at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Euisun Chung, executive vice-chairman of Hyundai, expects commercialisation of urban air mobility service in 2028, saying it takes time for laws and systems to be in place.

Hyundai is the first carmaker to join Uber’s air taxi project, which also counts Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences among its eight partner firms in the development.

Hyundai will produce and deploy the vehicles while Uber will provide aerial rideshare services. – Reuters