Uber doing the groundwork to give us a lift
Timeline set for aerial service but a lot to be done, writes Aimee Shaw
Uber plans to take its business airborne, adding a “third dimension” to its ridesharing services, but how exactly will these developments pan out?
The San Francisco-based company has given itself until 2023 to commercialise flying taxis, and next year it will begin trialling the technology.
Next month Uber will launch Uber Copter, an on-demand helicopter service which will connect commuters with both drivers and pilots for a short journey in New York City — the company says this is the first step in its plans to test and launch commercial flying taxi services in Melbourne, Los Angeles and Dallas by 2023.
Uber Copter’s launch will start small, with just one route — from downtown Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport, which the company says will take 30 minutes in total including ground transportation.
The average ride will cost between US$200 ($305) and US$225 per person and Uber claims it will cut the time taken on a traditional route to the airport in half.
To have a successful airborne taxi business Uber said it would adopt a “multi-modal” operational approach whereby it can connect users with both a helicopter and cars on the same trip to get customers from A to B efficiently.
Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, said data collected from Uber Copter would be used to refine algorithms that predict how long it takes to get to a skyport — Uber’s planned landing and take-off pads to be located on the tops of buildings or next to transport hubs, and finalise the company’s strategy for the rollout of Uber Air.
Uber is now establishing partnerships with organisations and businesses in Melbourne to develop the infrastructure and telecommunication services needed to run Uber Air. It is further along the journey with this in Dallas and Los Angeles.
It has also partnered with Macquarie, Telstra and Westfield shopping centre owner and operator Scentre Group, along with Melbourne Airport, to create the infrastructure services needed to create an urban aviation network for its flying taxis.
“We’re starting to really prepare the ground and figure out what that strategy looks like for deployment in the 2023 timeframe,” Allison said.
“It has to be done right, and done safe, so we’re not going to rush things.”
One of the big challenges is how Uber Air will ensure there is undisturbed internet connectivity during flights so its location-enabled app can track journeys in real time and keep drivers of ground transportation and passengers scheduled for the next journey connected. The company said it was partnering with telecommunication providers to work through this.
EmbraerX, the American division of the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, is one of six manufacturers competing to be the first to produce a certified flyable Uber Air electric aircraft. Each are creating concepts that are slightly different in size and function to make up the fleet.
Boeing, Bell, Pipistrel Aircraft, Karem Aircraft and Jaunt are also at work developing aircraft for Uber Air.
Uber, in conjunction with aerospace company Safran, has designed its own concept for aircraft which can accommodate four passengers and a pilot.
The doors can’t open from the inside but open from the outside by a touch of the button. Each aircraft would cost more than a million dollars, it estimates.
Campello said modern developments in aviation such as fully electric aircraft would open the doors to a whole new industry.
He said the adoption was not just about the aircraft being built but the aircraft and ecosystems operating behind it. “We have to change the way we do business in this day,” Campello said, adding that manufacturers needed to put safety above all else.
Uber believes the future of urban aviation and aeronautics lies in the hands of innovation.
Stan Swaintek, director of operations at Uber Elevate, said the launch of Uber Air would take a lot more than
While the technology behind the scenes is new, the aircraft, infrastructure and flight standards are not. Stan Swaintek, director of operations, Uber Elevate
just innovative flying machines but the company was confident it would be able to commercialise flying taxis within its 2023 timeframe.
“While the technology behind the scenes is new, the aircraft, infrastructure and flight standards are not”.
Uber regional general manager for Australia, New Zealand and North Asia, Susan Anderson, said the price would reduce as the business scaled and evolved.
“Technology goes through curves and part of what we need to do is to find a way forward as technology to evolve to be something that is cost-effective,” she said.
“It’s very hard to start from day one with a business model and technology that is already accessible; we have seen this in a number of different industries, if you go from personal computers to mobile phones to all of these technologies, they start as something that is higher priced and then as they scale and start to evolve the cost comes down.”
Last month Uber let go off a “significant” number of staff from its New Zealand workforce as it retrenches roles to Sydney. A year ago, Uber said it had 30 staff in its Auckland office located in the suburb of Kingsland.
Air New Zealand and Zephyr Airworks last year signed an agreement to bring an autonomous electric air taxi service to market in New Zealand.
It is developing a self-flying small plane, dubbed the Cora, which is being tested in Canterbury, it estimates to be six years away from commercial launch — about three behind Uber’s timeline to launch its own electric flying taxi service.
Some will take Uber’s timeline with a pinch of salt, however.
Back in 2016, Uber said it would be able to have fully autonomous vehicles — without any human safety driver as a backup — on the roads by 2020.
But technical, safety and regulatory challenges have meant that Uber and other players in the driver-less car space have now pushed out their deadlines by several years.