With Uber’s new air taxi service coming to NYC this summer, commuters everywhere are excited to see how it will operate on a global scale. Now, Uber Elevate is giving us a full VR/AR experience to preview how a general flight will work when the service begins its testing phase in 2020.
Test flights are said to begin in Los Angeles, Dallas and Melbourne, with the latter location being what inspired the video mock-up above. While the virtual experience above plays out a little over four minutes, the actual trip from the central business district of Melbourne to the airport is 19km and would take about 10 minutes through Uber Air. As you could assume, this would eliminate hours from a normal commute by car even without traffic. These VTOL aircrafts, abbreviated for “Vertical Take-Off and Landing” vehicles, will also introduce new “Skyports” that will be the designated pick-up/drop off area. The VTOL service will be provided by Uber directly as well as other air taxi companies, including EmbraerX, Karem Aircraft and Pipistrel amongst others. Sounds like a five-star flight experience to us!