The Fix

Choked traffic in three megacities prompted global ride-hailing platform Uber to select India among the first five finalist countries that could be home to an international Uber Air City within the next five years.

Uber Elevate – the ride-hailing platform’s aerial taxi arm – announced Japan, India, Australia, Brazil and France as shortlisted countries during the first Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo in Tokyo.

Uber will choose one city from the list as its third launch city after Dallas and Los Angeles for its air mobility project.

“Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it,” the company said.

“We are proud to host the first ever Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo. We are announcing a shortlist of five countries where Uber Air can immediately transform transportation and take our technology to new heights,” said Eric Allison, head of Uber Aviation Programmes.

Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are key ride-sharing markets globally and active helicopter markets.

In the next five years, Uber customers in the launch cities will be able to push a button and get a flight on demand.

To enable this Uber has assembled a network of partners that includes car manufacturers, property developers, technology developers and more.

Uber Elevate also announced plans to experiment with drone delivery for Uber Eats.