The advent of the Uber franchise has revolutionised how we move, from electric bikes to shared pool rides and delivery. It’s expansion and innovation leads it to the sky in a vision of the future that reduces dependence on individual car ownership, expanding access to transportation and opening immense mobility bandwidth. It’s an ambitious project that has the backing of local governments and private enterprise that sees the production of a wholly new kind of aircraft that can scale in cities.
Elevate is the mission that takes transportation off of the 2D grid moving ridesharing into the sky. In the coming years, at the push of a button, we will be able to book and passenger a flight a within minutes. Melbourne will be the first as its announced as one of the pilot sites for next year.
THE LINGO OF NEW AIR TRANSPORT:
Uber Air looks to pioneer a public air transport system that is available to all and not just a privileged few.
- Uber Air: is the product riders will use to push a button and get a flight.
- Elevate: is the name of the overall initiative to launch Uber Air
- Skyport: the stations located on the tops of buildings where riders will catch their Uber Air flights.
- eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) vehicle: The technical name for the flying craft designed being used on Uber Air.
- eCRM (eVTOL Common Reference Model): The designs we are sharing with the industry to embrace State of the Art development of eVTOL vehicles.
THE AIRCRAFT:
- Uber entered into partnerships with several highly experienced aircraft manufacturers including: Aurora Flight Sciences (now a subsidiary of Boeing), Pipistrel Vertical Solutions, EmbraerX, Bell, and Karem Aircraft and newly announced, Jaunt Air Mobility.
- The aircraft will be all electric and battery powered
- Distributed electric propulsion ensures these vehicles are much quieter than similarly sized helicopters and planes and will be 32 times less noisy
- Safety design will ensure every rotor has its own electric motor meaning if one or more fails in-flight, the aircraft can still be landed safely
SAFETY:
Charting new territory, a world class Safety Management System in compliance with international safety standards and Federal Aviation Administration requirements proactively identifies and mitigates safety issues.
- Uber has signed two Space Act Agreements with NASA one for the development of new Unmanned Traffic Management concepts and Unmanned Aerial Systems and another to explore concepts and technologies for Urban Air Mobility.
- Uber has also signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, Army Research Lab to assist in the vehicle development and testing for Uber Air. This includes an initial joint work statement to provide joint funding of $1 million for research development of rotor technology.
- An urban air mobility network of Skyports will act as hubs that open up access to neighborhoods from every direction and from every other Skyport, an advantage vertical transportation has over roads or rail.
- Uber has also entered into a real estate partnership with Hillwood Properties
PILOT SITES & OPERATIONS COMMENCE WHEN?
The sheer scale of this new air network and transportation system planned is envisioned to cost riders the same as it would a ground car UberX ride of the same distance once in full swing:
- Uber’s first Uber Air cities will be Dallas-Fort Worth / Frisco Texas, Los Angeles, California and Melbourne, Australia
- Flight demonstrations are planned in 2020, with Elevate commercially available to riders in 2023
The future is now.
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