...DRIVERLESS CARS
UBER PARTNERS WITH HYUNDAI MOTOR ON ELECTRIC AIR TAXI
Uber Technologies Inc and South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor have teamed up to develop electric air taxis, joining the global race to make small self-fly- ing cars to ease urban congestion. According to Reuters, global players such as Germany’s Daimler, China’s Geely Automobile and Japan’s Toyota have all unveiled investments in startups that aim to deploy electric flying cars capable of vertical takeoff and landing. But there are big tech-
nological and reg- ulatory hurdles to the plans.
Uber and Hyundai, for instance, gave widely different timelines for com- mercialisation, underlining these challenges. “We’ve been mak- ing steady pro- gress towards a goal of launching Uber Air by 2023,” Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, said at the Con- sumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last month. Euisun Chung, Ex- ecutive Vice Chair- man of Hyundai, expects commer- cialisation of urban
however, ack-
nowledged it would be “unrealistic” to expect all its part- ners to go to market at the same time.
Hyundai and Uber’s flying taxi at CES
air mobility service in 2028, saying it takes time for laws and systems to be in place.
Hyundai is the first carmaker to join Uber’s air taxi pro- ject, which also counts Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences
among its partner firms.
Hyundai will pro- duce and deploy the vehicles while Uber will provide aerial ride-share services. Uber, which has partnered with eight companies on its air taxi project,
Hyundai unveiled a concept electric aircraft developed with Uber at CES, with the self-flying electric car de- signed to carry up to four passengers with a pilot and fly on trips of up to 60 miles (100 km). “The overall cost to produce and oper- ate UAM (urban air mobility) vehicles should be really low enough for everyone to enjoy the freedom to fly,”
Shin Jaiwon, Head of Urban Air Mobil- ity Division at Hyundai Motor, said.
Air taxis come in several shapes and sizes - electric motors replace jet engines, and air- craft have rotating wings and, in some cases, rotors in place of propellers. The urban flight market will exceed the current number of commercial air- planes flying around the world - about 25,000, Hyundai’s Shin, a former NASA engineer hired by the automaker, esti- mated, without giv- ing any timeframe.
AIR TAXI COMPANY EHANG FLIES AUTONOMOUSLY IN THE USA FOR THE FIRST TIME
Aerial passenger drone startup EHang flew its EHang 216 two- seat self-flying taxi fully autonomous- ly in North Caro- lina last month, according to Tech- Crunch. This is a first for the company both in the U.S. and North America. EHang, which is based in Guang- zhou, China, has already demon- strated its vehicle in flight at home
and in different parts of Europe and Asia, but this is the first time its aircraft has re- ceived approval to fly by the FAA, and EHang is now working toward extending that approval to flying with passengers on board. This is a key requirement for E-Hang’s even- tual goal of of- fering commercial services in the U.S. This demonstration flight, which took
FEBRUARY 2020
vice in Guangzhou, north west
of
place in Raleigh, included flying North Carolina gov- ernor Roy Cooper on board the two- seat aircraft. Eventually, EHang hopes to deploy these for use across a number of different industries,
for transportation of both passengers and cargo along autonomous, short- distance routes in and around urban areas.
EHang has also re- vealed plans to begin operating an aerial shuttle ser-
Hong Kong, with a pilot citywide drone taxi service intended to show off not only its individual auto- nomous vehicle capabilities, but also how it can deploy and oper- ate multiple EHang aircraft working in concert with one another and with other aircraft shar- ing the air space over the city. Toward the end of
2019, EHang actu- ally completed two trial flights of its 216 vehicles flying simultaneously as an early step toward
building
out that pilot. The company has delivered around 40 of its aircraft to paying customers, too, and if all goes to plan, by next month it will have completed a pilot programme with the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
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