“The flying car is a transportation-efficient to go from end to end of the city”

The air taxis of this company will arrive in 2020 to Los Angeles, a year after that journeyed the movie ‘Blade Runner’.

 

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="980"] Jeff Holden, director of UberAir, at the Web Summit in Lisbon.[/caption]

 

 

 

It has taken half a century or more that the doctor Caractacus Potts, but only a year more than the film Blade Runner. Jeff Holden is the director of the flying car from Uber, which was presented Tuesday at the Web Summit in Lisbon. Its design is nothing like the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or the riding Harrison Ford to move around Los Angeles, but in 2020 UberAir is in the roofing of that american city.

“I'm optimistic,” explains Holden minutes after introducing the world to his new means of urban transport. The head of UberAir is an enthusiast that does not leave time or to take a rest in the news. If Steve Jobs -that God keep him in his glory - it would have had in their hands the announcement of a taxi flying, and a contract with NASA to design highways air of the cities, the auditorium would have been carried out on the shoulders. Heldon does not have that gift to advertising, but make certain things impossible.

[mks_pullquote align="right" width="300" size="24" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#ffffff"]The average time of service is going to be around 30 miles and 20 minutes of duration[/mks_pullquote]

For nine years, Holden developed on Amazon the miraculous technology that allowed a purchase to reach to the other corner of the world in record time and without losing money. “Amazon and Uber have points in common,” he says in an interview to THE COUNTRY shortly after your conference. “The two companies try to bring a service to your destination, and the two have a vision of the future”.

In this complicated world of transportation logistics, Amazon was a pioneer in the use of drones to download packages, the Prime Air. At Uber, Holden has changed the drone by a kind of helicopter with propellers, folding (vertical, to climb; horizontal, to plan) to move people. “I'm optimistic with the regulators of airspace, have welcomed very receptivamente the idea and also the municipal authorities”.

[anuncio_b30 id=1]

The UberAir of Holden will fly above the drones and below the clouds, between the skyscrapers and the birds. “The device has a capacity for four passengers and the pilot; may be less, but not more, because more passengers, more weight and more noise. The noise is a fundamental aspect of a city and that's why we throw in the previous studies the possibility of transport by helicopter”.

[mks_pullquote align="left" width="300" size="24" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#ffffff"]Uber and Amazon are trying to bring a service to your destination, and the two have a vision of the future[/mks_pullquote]

Holden acknowledges that it is not absolutely silent the device, but its noise tends more towards the air conditioning than to that of a rotor on takeoff. The daring project, with partners and fixed date of release, it does not change the fundamental strategy of Uber. The company's largest growth market in the shortest time in the history of mankind is not the owner of anything, nor aircraft, nor the airports, nor drivers, only the know-how.“We collaborate with the manufacturers of the vehicles, but we will not be their owners; nor do we build airports, we think, rather, on the exploitation of the roofs of hotels and other skyscrapers of the cities, with which we associate”.

In reality, the UberAir more than a car is a plane, “silent and electric” and, therefore, will enter between nearby cities or through the centers of the megapolis, in the style of the film Blade Runner, that aparcaba in downtown Los Angeles. “We'll start in 2020, a year after the prediction of the prediction of science fiction, with seven north american cities, but then we will extend it throughout the world. The problem of urban transport is universal and is compounded each day; also the pollution. UberAir contribute to their solution, is an efficient transport to go from end to end of the city, or travel between nearby cities, for example, between Lisbon and Cascais [about 25 miles]".

[mks_pullquote align="right" width="300" size="24" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#ffffff"]I am optimistic with the regulators of airspace, have welcomed very receptivamente the idea and also the municipal authorities[/mks_pullquote]

In principle, will not take work or to the taxi or to the aircraft. “Our tests have been made with devices which have a range of 60 miles, although the average time of service is going to be around 30 miles and about 20 minutes duration”. Holden thinks of trajectories of the centers of the cities to the airports or at appointments punctual and concentrated, as a major sports event. In the tests conducted in these circumstances reduced to one third the time spent on transport. Lack to know the price of the flag fall.

“There is still a lot of work ahead,” says Holden, “but manufacturers, authorities and Nasa are keen to meet the challenge of 2020”.

SOURCE> EL PAIS

[anuncio_b30 id=5]