Uber recently shortlisted India alongside four other countries where the company aims to launch its UberAIR taxi operations and drone delivery services within the next 5 years. Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore are the cities on Uber’s radar where the aerial taxi service and drone delivery business are poised to kick off. Now, the company has come up with an aerial map showcasing the impact of Uber’s aerial taxi service in cutting down travel time in Mumbai.
Uber has developed an aerial map connecting the Mumbai airport located in the western suburbs of the city to downtown Churchgate at the southern tip, highlighting the drastic reduction in commute time between the two locations. Uber’s aerial taxi service will supposedly bring it down to just 10 minutes, an estimate that reduces travel time by 90 percent.
“To get a sense of what such a service might look like, we have developed this map from the Mumbai airport to Churchgate. This trip typically takes 100 minutes by car. We can do it in 10 minutes by air”, Global CEO of Uber Aviation Programs, Eric Allison was quoted as saying by TheHindu.
Speaking at the 43rd Annual General Meeting of the US India Business Council (USIBC) in Mumbai, Allison also gave a presentation of the aerial vehicles that will bear some resemblance to multi-rotor helicopters, and will fly at relatively lower altitudes to keep the airspace free for commercial airlines and jets. The Uber executive is slated to meet with government officials in Delhi to streamline the launch of Uber’s aerial taxis in India, that will be powered by batteries and will have a range of around 60 miles on a single charge.
“This is the type of urban mobility game changer that this kind of solution brings. We think that once we are able to do it at scale as we are able to drive fully into it with the cost that these VTOL (vertical take-off landing) vehicles produce, we can do it at a cost comparable to our Uber X cost per passenger mile basis”, Allison added. In the next six months, Uber will announce the first international city where UberAIR services will commence, and if Mumbai gets selected, the company’s aerial taxi services will begin by the year 2023.
