Fasten your seatbelt to board a flying cab soon as Uber on Thursday, 30 August, selected India as one of the first five shortlisted finalist countries that could be home to the first international Uber Air City within the next five years.
After evaluating countries across the globe, Uber Elevate – the ride-hailing platform's aerial taxi arm – announced Japan, India, Australia, Brazil and France as shortlisted countries at the first "Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo" in Tokyo.
Uber will choose one of the cities from these five shortlisted countries as its third launch city for flying taxis – after Dallas and Los Angeles in the US.
In the next five years, Uber customers in launch cities will be able to push a button and get a flight on demand.
Uber Elevate also announced plans to experiment with drone delivery for Uber Eats, and demonstrated how potential Uber Air routes in Asia-Pacific cities could benefit local transportation systems.
Sadly, people in India will have to wait for drone deliveries to take off, which, for the time being, has been restricted by the country’s government.
Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are some of the most congested cities in the world, where travelling even a few kilometers can take over an hour. Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it.Uber statement
Uber isn’t the first company to show interest in helping with India’s congested traffic woes. Hyperloop is another global entity that wants to set up its fast-moving pods, enabling fast transit between cities.
Having said that, Uber will have to battle the administrative barriers, especially the security concerns posed by air-borne vehicles, and will have to guarantee reliable and mishap-free travelling.
Uber has assembled a network of partners that includes vehicle manufacturers, real estate developers, technology developers and more.
Dallas and Los Angeles were previously announced as the first two US launch cities and at the second annual Uber Elevate Summit in May, Uber announced it was seeking an international city as a third partner.
Japan is one of the first countries to accept the potential of such air-borne vehicles, and will be working on policies to encourage its use.
We see much potential in flying cars, and we anticipate that flying cars can be used not only to help solve traffic congestion in urban areas, but it will also help with increased mobility between city centres and remote islands and mountainous areas.Daisaku Hiraki, Parliamentary Vice-Minister, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan
Uber Elevate has established a criteria framework to select the third city, anchored around three priority principles: sizable market, local commitment and enabling conditions.
(With inputs from IANS.)
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