Flying taxis next service up from Uber

UBER has struck a deal with Nasa to develop software for managing “flying taxi” routes in the air along the lines of ride-hailing services it has pioneered on the ground, the company said yesterday.

And in this case, it is working hard to stay on regulators’ good side.

Uber said it was the first formal services contract by the US National Aeronautical and Space Administration (Nasa) covering low-altitude airspace rather than outer space.

Nasa has used such contracts to develop rockets since the late 1950s.

Chief product officer Jeff Holden also said Uber would begin testing four-passenger, 322km/h flying taxi services across Los Angeles in 2020, its second test market after Dallas/Fort Worth.

Holden is set to reveal the company’s latest air-taxi plans at Web Summit, an annual internet conference taking place in Lisbon this week.

Uber has faced endless regulatory and legal battles around the world since it launched its ride-hailing services earlier this decade.

The company was looking to speed development of a new industry of electric, on-demand, urban air taxis, Holden said, which customers could order up via smartphone in ways that parallel the ground-based taxi alternatives it has popularised while expanding into more than 600 cites since 2011.

The company planned to introduce paid, intra-city flying taxi services from 2023 and was working closely with aviation regulators in the United States and Europe to win regulatory approvals toward that end, a senior Uber executive said.