Right now if you are looking to hire a helicopter to get from one place to another, it isn’t necessarily the cheapest option. However, perhaps in the future, flying personal modes of transportation could become cheaper and more accessible, and that’s a future that both Hyundai and Uber are working towards.Both companies have announced a partnership in which Hyundai will be helping Uber to develop flying taxis that could be used in the future. Dubbed the Uber Air Taxis, this partnership will see Hyundai do the grunt work where they will produce and deploy the taxis, while Uber provides airspace support services, connections to ground transportation, and also customer interfaces.
According to Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, “Hyundai is our first vehicle partner with experience of manufacturing passenger cars on a global scale. We believe Hyundai has the potential to build Uber Air vehicles at rates unseen in the current aerospace industry, producing high quality, reliable aircraft at high volumes to drive down passenger costs per trip.”
Jaiwon Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Division adds, “We expect UAM to vitalize urban communities and provide more quality time to people. We are confident that Uber Elevate is the right partner to make this innovative product readily available to as many customers as possible.”