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Uber to take flying cars international in a third UberAir test city

The ride-hailing service plans to pick a city in Australia, Japan, India, Brazil or France for its third UberAir test site and its first outside the US.

Claire Reilly Former Principal Video Producer
Claire Reilly was a video host, journalist and producer covering all things space, futurism, science and culture. Whether she's covering breaking news, explaining complex science topics or exploring the weirder sides of tech culture, Claire gets to the heart of why technology matters to everyone. She's been a regular commentator on broadcast news, and in her spare time, she's a cabaret enthusiast, Simpsons aficionado and closet country music lover. She originally hails from Sydney but now calls San Francisco home.
Expertise Space, Futurism, Science and Sci-Tech, Robotics, Tech Culture Credentials
  • Webby Award Winner (Best Video Host, 2021), Webby Nominee (Podcasts, 2021), Gold Telly (Documentary Series, 2021), Silver Telly (Video Writing, 2021), W3 Award (Best Host, 2020), Australian IT Journalism Awards (Best Journalist, Best News Journalist 2017)
Claire Reilly
3 min read
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Uber's eCRM-003 -- the reference model for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle.

Uber

Uber wants to bring flying cars to our skies, and it's chosen five countries it thinks are perfect for the transport of the future.

The ride-sharing company is officially setting up a third test city for its UberAir initiative, after Dallas and Los Angeles, and has announced it is working with five countries to launch UberAir internationally. Uber made the announcement at its Uber Elevate conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

Australia, Brazil, France, India and Japan have all been slated as potential sites for the trials, which would see Uber running test flights, road-testing (sky-testing?) the technology and working with local regulators to establish the framework for making on-demand aviation a reality.

The promise? A future when you can "push a button and get a flight."

The company says it is now officially working with regulators and city planners across the five countries, with plans to announce its third UberAir test city within six months. Uber name-checked a number of cities and regions in each country in its announcement.

  • Australia: Sydney and Melbourne
  • Brazil: Rio de Janeiro and the state of São Paulo
  • France: Paris
  • India: Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore
  • Japan: Tokyo
Watch this: UberAir will be a flying car service

When UberAir gets off the ground, you won't be seeing sedans with bolted on wings. Known as eVTOL aircraft (short for electric vertical take-off and landing), these vehicles look more like futuristic hobby drones upsized for humans. Think multiple propellers, streamlined aerodynamic designs and high-tech electric batteries (Uber's head of battery engineering, Celina Mikolajczak, joined the company from ).

Uber is currently working with partners such as Embraer and Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences to develop vehicles, and the company unveiled its first design for an eVTOL concept vehicle at its second Uber Elevate conference in Los Angeles in May.

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The eCRM-003 features four pairs of co-rotating propellers to provide vertical lift. Once at cruising altitude, the concept reverts to more efficient fixed-wing operation with a single rear rotor providing thrust.

Uber

The eCRM-003, as it's known internally at Uber, features four pairs of co-rotating rotors (a total of eight propellors) driven by electric motors to create vertical lift. That vertical lift means the aircraft doesn't need a long runway for take-off, so starting a flight will be as simple as jumping off from a "Skyport" on top of a building.

The eCRM is capable of cruising speeds of 150 to 200 miles per hour (240 to 320 kilometers/hour) and can go 60 miles on a single charge. Uber also says the electric motors make for a much quieter and more efficient flight, compared to a helicopter.

Uber has previously said it wants to get flying cars off the ground as early as 2020 in Los Angeles, with plans for an UberAir on-demand air taxi service as early as 2023. But it won't be alone as it pushes for this ambitious goal.

Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Kitty Hawk (the Silicon Valley darling financed by Google founder Larry Page ) are all working on concepts to take to the skies in the form of on-demand air taxis, high-tech rescue aircraft and even unpiloted "personal aviation" vehicles in the future.

All of the electric urban aircraft unveiled at Uber Elevate 2018

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