Nairobi to Have Flying Taxis
Last year Uber promised flying taxis in several cities in a few years. But the company will be relying on variety of partners to provide the actual vehicles and systems required to have a working flying taxi service in a city.
The cars will be efficient in fuel use, safe and no noise compared to helicopters. McFly, the company that intends to introduce the service in Kenya will use an initial production cost worth $120,000 per vehicle. However, that is expected to reduce to $30,000 once they start producing in bulk. The trip will cost $8 per minute. But pricing will depend on grid’s load.
Passengers will be picked up at the nearest helipad or heliport and dropped at the nearest pad to their destination, and will take a 5-10-minute walk at either end.
US-based tech firms Facebook and Uber have also requested permission from Kenya's aviation regulator to test drone activities following legalisation of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) says the tech giants have shown interest in use of drones in the country following adoption of regulations to guide operation of the devices.
The move makes Kenya the third country on the continent after Rwanda and South Africa to have a legal framework in place for the remotely controlled aircraft.
Meanwhile, at least 19 companies are also working on flying taxis. Amongst them are big names like Airbus and Boeing (who have completed initial flight tests of an electric unmanned cargo aerial vehicle prototype), as well as small startups like Kitty Hawk, owned by Google founder Larry Page.
Dallas, Dubai and Los Angeles are the first three cities where Uber plans to launch a pilot service by 2020. Uber has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to create a brand-new air traffic control system. Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) hopes that airborne taxi services will make up a quarter of all transport in the city by 2030 and Singapore is also investing in flying, driverless drones to resolve traffic problems.
Introducing flying taxi services in cities will be a complicated and cumbersome task, but given the rising traffic problems in urban areas all across the world, flying cars and taxis seem to the only viable solution.
