Do you feel the process of booking a cab and wait for the cab to pick you up and let you experience the bitterness of traffic hurdles just to reach your destination? But, that may not be the case after five years from now. You can simply opt for booking a ‘flying cab’ as Uber on Thursday included India as one of the first five shortlisted and final countries that could become home to the first international Uber Air City with in the next five years.
Many countries were evaluated across the globe before the announcement by Uber Elevate – the ride-hailing platform’s aerial taxi arm – the names of the countries shortlisted at the first “Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo” in Tokyo. The countries named were Japan, Australia, Brazil, India, and France.
Uber will select one of the cities from the shortlisted countries as its third launch city for flying taxis.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
Uber Elevate also expressed its desire to experiment with drone delivery for Uber Eats and demonstrated how the local transportation systems could benefit from the potential Uber Air routes in Asia Pacific cities.
“We are proud to host the first ever Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo. We are announcing a shortlist of five countries where Uber Air can immediately transform transportation and take our technology to new heights,” said Eric Allison, Head of Uber Aviation Programmes.
Very soon after five years, Uber customers in the selected cities for the launch will be able to press a button to request a flight on demand.
To make it become a success, Uber had built up a network of partners that includes technology developers, manufacturers, real estate developers and more.
The first to be announced for the launch were Dallas and Los Angeles from the US and during the second annual Uber Elevate Summit in May, Uber announced that it was in the process of finalizing another international city as a third partner.
“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 increase mobility between city centres and remote islands and mountainous areas, promote tourism in Japan as well as enhance disaster relief operations,” said Daisaku Hiraki, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.
“The Uber Elevate team is now inviting conversations with stakeholders across major cities in these countries, and will announce the chosen Uber Air international city within the next six months,” said the company.
To select the third city, Uber Elevate has established a criteria framework which is anchored around three priority principles: a sizable market, enabling conditions and local commitment.
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