Uber Partners with Hyundai for Electric Air Taxi

Uber Technologies and the South Korean automaker Hyundai has partnered for developing the electric air taxis. They have joined the global competition for making the small self-flying cars for easing the issue of urban congestion.

Daimler of Germany, Geely Automobile of China and the Toyota of Japan have all revealed the investments in the startups that are targeted to make use of the electric flying cars capable of the vertical takeoff and landing features. However, there are big technological and regulatory hindrances to the plans.

Uber and Hyundai have provided extensive variety in timelines for the commercialisation, understanding these problems.

Eric Allison the head of the Uber Elevate, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas said that they have been making constant progress towards the attainment of the goal of introducing the Uber Air by 2023.

Euisun Chung, the Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai, anticipates commercialisation of the urban air mobility services in 2028, saying that it takes time for the systems and laws to be in place.

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Hyundai is the first automobile manufacturer to join the air taxi project of Uber, which also counts the Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences among its partner companies.

Hyundai would be producing and deploying the automobiles while Uber would be providing aerial ride-share services.

Uber which has teamed up with 8 firms on its air taxi project, but, acknowledged it would be unreal to anticipated all its partners for going to the market at the same time.

The Communications Manager at Uber Sarah Abboud has told Reuters that their plans for limited commercial operations in 2023 would likely be including other partners.

Hyundai would be revealing a concept of the electric aircraft developed with Uber at CES, with the self-flying electric car that is designed to carry nearly 4 passengers with a pilot and fly on trips of up to 100 kilometres.

The Head of the Urban Air Mobility Division at the Hyundai Motor has said that the overall cost of the production and operation of the urban air mobility automobiles should be really low for all to enjoy the flying freedom.

The urban flight market would be exceeding the present number of the commercial aeroplanes that are making around the world, nearly 25,000 as per the estimations of Shin of Hyundai without offering any timeframe.

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