Uber already has self-driving cars,Sex On Phone and now it's on to the next frontier: Flying cars.
The ride-hailing company on Thursday posted a white paper outlining its plan for "on-demand aviation," aka flying Ubers.
"On-demand aviation, has the potential to radically improve urban mobility, giving people back time lost in their daily commutes," Uber wrote in its white paper.
Along with a lengthy analysis of the economics and mechanics of flying cars, Uber published a bunch of illustrations of next-generation airborne transportation.
The plan involves a network of small, electric aircraft that take off and land vertically. These aircraft could be used for longer transportation, but they are also meant to be used within cities, like Uber's original cars. The first step for on-demand aviation will be using the aircraft to improve long-distance daily commutes, Uber said.
Aircraft that take off and land vertically — called VTOL — have been around for a while. The technology, however, hasn't taken much progress toward reaching a wider market.
Uber's white paper outlines several barriers in getting this transportation to market, and how Uber will solve those problems.
The company promises that air transportation like this will be affordable and "even less expensive than owning a car." The paper outlines air transport pricing for an UberX trip that would cost $111 today. Initially, Uber's air transport would cost $129 to travel that same distance. But the company says, in the long term, that same trip would go down to $20 via air travel.
Uber isn't the first company to try to solve road congestion through flying. The startup AeroMobil has pledgedto take on Uber and Lyft through similar air technology.
The company won't actually build the network of flying cars, but instead is just trying to jumpstart the process and stake out its market share in the technology. That's not exactly surprising for the transportation company that barely owns any cars.
"We believe the urban air transportation ecosystem will only be successful with the participation of entrepreneurial vehicle manufacturers, city and national officials from across the globe, regulators, users, and communities who will be keen to interact with one another to understand how the ecosystem can shape the future of on-demand urban air transportation," the company wrote.
Get ready for Uber to take over the skies, too.
Topics Uber
(Editor: {typename type="name"/})
If They Are Not Coming For You Today
Android Go might actually make ultra
America's newest eye in the sky is proving itself one tornado outbreak at a time
Google Assistant can now control GE's smart appliances
Tom Hanks: Typewriter Fetishist
'Minecraft' is changing to make sure kids don't kill their birds in real life
Google CEO just announced that Android has 2 billion users
Has Netflix found its own 'Game of Thrones' in 'The Witcher' saga?
What Gisele Bündchen just said about Tom Brady should bother every NFL fan
接受PR>=1、BR>=1,流量相当,内容相关类链接。