Even with the average top speed of cars getting higher year by year, the time taken to commute from one place to another is still the same and in some cases even increasing. Ever wondered why? The answer is simple, the number of cars on the road is increasing thus the traffic causing many delays. Uber has a simple solution: flying taxis.
You won’t have to drive your own car or order an on-road taxi service, but what you would be calling is an air taxi service via your very own Uber app with the added option of UberAIR. The taxi wouldn’t look like any another taxi but would be a totally different looking, gleaming white helicopter-drone hybrid, whatever you may want to call it.
There wouldn’t need to be a runway but like any other helicopter it would just lift you straight away into the air and fly towards your journey at an impressive speed of 200 miles per hour.
Uber had been planning this kind of service for quite some time as it was apparent with their statement a year ago. Now, their plan seems to be more into action and might actually be serious. It already has hand shaken with some companies in Dubai and Dallas to implement this in sort of a way.
Though the plan to actually launch a commercial service for its customers would come in a few years later after 2020, what Uber has actually revealed is that it officially plans to bring at least some flying cars to the LA by 2020, if not commercially making it available.
To further explain as to how this initiative would be implemented, Uber supplemented their announcement with a video detailing such. Initially, you have to use an elevator first to go to near the roof of the building. Then you will have to tap your phone, which will then let you go through a turnstile and then this will lead you to the roof. It has been assumed that you are already checked for security purposes.
A group of 4 would be taken to the heli-drone, accompanied by a man in an orange vest. After that, you can just sit back and relax and enjoy the ride, with a driver-pilot taking you to your destination. There would an added overhead display which will tell you the estimated time of arrival at your destination.
What once seemed impossible to do so, now seems legit much near. There might be problems associated with air traffic control, making sure the levels of noise are down, and properly utilizing air space for maximum benefit. The biggest problem might still be finding such a flying car. The best thing is Uber might be one of the few to actually put this into implementation.
Flying cars around Los Angles isn’t as easy it may seem. The airspace is already crowded by helicopters flown by police, news channels, and others. “There are airspace questions that arise with having more than just a few rotorcraft vehicles flying around a metropolitan area,” says Seth Young, who runs The Ohio State University’s Center for Aviation Studies. The flying cars would have to be able to coordinate with air traffic control too. But if such vehicles extend to more than a hundred, it would be impossible t just rely on air traffic control.
“UberAIR will be performing far more flights over cities on a daily basis than has ever been done before,” the company’s chief product officer, Jeff Holden, said in a statement.
All we can do is sit back and relax and wait for the glory days when we would be flying from one place to another literally.