Uber Finalizes Another Location For Testing Its Flying Taxis

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Uber has shortlisted the third test city for its flying taxi trials. Melbourne, Australia will be joining Los Angeles and Dallas which were shortlisted earlier. Dubai was said to be the third city, but negotiations didn't go as planned forcing the company to look for other sites outside the US for trials.

 
Uber Finalizes Another Location For Testing Its Flying Taxis

The cab-hailing giant also considered Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney. Susan Anderson, Uber's Regional General Manager for Australia, New Zealand, and North Asia, told Reuters that Melbourne was selected because the Australian government "adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology."

 

The city has "unique demographic and geospatial factors and culture of innovation and technology" that makes it an ideal choice for the trials.

Uber plans to strat UberAir's electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicles by 2020, three years prior to the expected launch of the service. Test flights in Melbourne will ferry passengers from one of the Westfield shopping centers to the city's main international airport.

The distance between the points is 12 miles and usually takes around 25 minutes. However, with the flying taxi, it would only take 10 minutes. Users will be able to book the flying taxis using the Uber app, however, the pickup and drop will be from landing pads dubbed "Skyports."

Uber has roped in several companies to design the flying vehicles. The company is also said to be working with NASA to build an air traffic control system to manage its flying taxi fleet.

Besides, Rolls-Royce -the engine company that parted ways with the car company decades ago, is also working flying cars. It aims to build an electric vehicle that would be able to reach speeds up to 400 kilometers per hour (250 miles per hour). The company believes that the vehicle could see the light of day as early as the next decade, a timeline that its competition has been aiming.

But, Tesla's Elon Musk has a different opinion about flying cars. He believes flying cars are going to be a failure. In fact, he thinks such vehicles could potentially chop your head off.

Well, we'll have to wait and watch when these vehicles arrive. There has been a lot of skepticism about such vehicles but considering the current traffic problems, it seems like a valid solution.

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