Flying cars will zoom around Melbourne from next year.
When Uber first announced Uber Air, it intended for Dubai to be its first international city. That changed last year when Uber put out an open call to interested cities to describe the clear need for aerial transit, the environmental conditions of the city and local government commitment.
Today at Uber Elevate, Uber announced Melbourne, Australia as the first international city where it will test Uber Air. Already, architects have envisioned what the skyports in the city could look like.
And the project could become still more futuristic* after its launch, with Uber planning to later remove pilots and have its aircraft fly autonomously*.
The ride-sharing company revealed its Australian choice at the third Uber Elevate Summit in Washington DC, choosing Melbourne over cities in short-listed countries Japan, France, Brazil and India.
Uber Australia and New Zealand general manager Susan Anderson said the company picked Melbourne as it was “confident” it could work with Australian federal, state and local governments, safety authorities, and property groups to deliver the service.
“This is a win for Australia and I think it reflects the fact that this is one of the most forward-thinking countries in the world,” she said.
“Some of the things we were looking for were regulators* that we could work with and would help us build it, and a population who would embrace this enterprise.”
As part of the venture, Uber has partnered with Australian companies including Melbourne Airport, Telstra, Scentre Group, and Macquarie Group to develop launch pads around the city, dubbed Skyports, as well as a connected air traffic system.
Ms Anderson said the route between Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport and the city would be one of the first targeted by UberAir, as the 19km ride could be cut from one hour on the road to just 10 minutes in the air.
Future routes could include travel from Geelong to the city, with the journey taking 14 minutes by air, but Ms Anderson said Uber would expand the project to other Australian cities as soon as it made sense to do so.
“When we look at the growth that’s come into Australia over the past few years, we need alternative traffic solutions,” she said.
“Once we have regulations in place, we’re keen to make this available in as many places as possible.”
But Uber will have to overcome several hurdles before launching its air service in Australia, such as choosing a vertical take-off-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft, having the vehicles certified* by the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority*, getting approval for air routes, and putting in place safety measures to avoid other low-altitude aircraft and drones.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said it had held initial talks with Uber but there was still “a lot of safety work to be done” before Uber Air was ready for takeoff.
“It is cutting-edge* stuff. It’s a world first for aviation,” he said.
“At the same time, what they’ve got to do is not a million miles away from if someone wanted to start up a new airline tomorrow. It’s the same sort of process.”
Mr Gibson said Uber Air’s timetable of a commercial launch by 2023 was “not impossible” but the company would need to do more to operate aircraft autonomously in Australian air space.
“The aim is for these things to fly themselves but, of course, they won’t be doing that from day one,” he said. “Uber fully recognise they have to have people monitoring* the systems for quite a while to prove they can operate safely before they move to full autonomous mode.”
Melbourne will join Dallas and Los Angeles, both US cities, as test sites for Uber’s latest venture, and Ms Anderson said even though the Australian launch site “started the process slightly later,” the company was still aiming to hold test flights next year.
Uber would also “work towards” delivering flights for the same cost as its luxury offering, Uber Black, on a per-kilometre basis, she said. That could mean a flight from Melbourne city to the airport would cost just $86.
“A key aim for us is we want this to not be something for the elite*, super wealthy but something that is accessible for a large portion of the population,” she said.
The Uber Air announcement comes on the back of the company’s launch of a ride-sharing submarine, dubbed scUber, on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
