Uber takes to the skies

Metroplex traffic? Bell Helicopter and Uber are trying to develop a way for commuters to fly over it.

Several companies, including the ones previously mentioned, detailed their plans during the event. We’re going to work with Uber.

Holden was speaking at Uber’s Elevate Summit in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday.

The company plans on demonstrating its flying vehicles by 2020 in Dubai and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Uber is aiming to have its first public demonstration by 2020, which is a bit ambitious considering that a lot of the technology and regulations for flying cars have yet to be validated. And putting its money where its mouth is, Uber just two months ago hired a former NASA engineer with an impressive and oddly robust research background involving flying auto technologies to head up the program. At the Uber Elevate summit in Dallas, Uber announced its first five VTOL vehicle partners will be Aurora Flight Sciences, Pipistrel Aircraft, Embraer, Mooney, and Bell Helicopter.

Expanding on ideas first published in a white paper last October, the company said the electric vehicles will take off and land vertically like a helicopter, with zero emissions and minimal noise. And it launched a partnership with an electric charging company called ChargePoint, to develop charging stations for Uber’s flying taxis. Uber sees these so-called flying cars as the future. They were chosen for their expertise that’ll enable Uber to get its Elevate network up and running as quick as possible. Additionally, it has also partnered with ChargePoint, an USA electric vehicle charging station maker, to develop an exclusive charger for its network.

Bell announced that it will begin development of hybrid-electric VTOL taxi designs in the near-term, with a long-term goal to develop a fully electric vehicle. In Uber’s vision, getting people from outer borough and suburbs to the city can be enabled by flying taxis.

During his talk, Holden said the roll-out could be done relatively inexpensively for future customers, with an envisioned network that could be created to pick up passengers at stops along the way in what the executive categorized as “multi-mobile trips”, Holden said.

But the design is less futuristic and ambitious than Uber’s flying vehicle, instead resembling a hybrid of a drone and jet ski that can only be flown in uncongested areas and over fresh water, according to its website.

A visualization by Uber of what its Uber Elevate network could look like in Dubai.