Las Vegas (AFP) - Hyundai announced Monday it would mass produce flying cars for Uber's aerial rideshare network set to deploy in 2023.
The South
Korean manufacturer said it would produce the four-passenger electric
"vertical take-off and landing vehicles" at "automotive
scale," without offering details.
The deal
announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas could help Uber, which
is working with other aircraft manufacturers, to achieve its goal of deploying
air taxi service in a handful of cities by 2023.
Jaiwon
Shin, head of Hyundai's urban air mobility division, said he expects the
large-scale manufacturing to keep costs affordable for the aerial systems.
"We
know how to mass produce high quality vehicles," Shin told a news
conference at CES.
He said he
expected the partnership to allow for the short-range air taxis to be
"affordable for everyone."
Eric
Allison, head of Uber Elevate, appeared at the CES event with Hyundai to
discuss the partnership.
"By
taking transportation out of the two dimensional grid on the ground and moving
it into the sky, we can offer significant time savings to our riders,"
Allison said.
He said
that because of its other app-based transport options, "only Uber can
seamlessly connect riders from cars, trains and even bikes to aircraft."
Uber has
announced it had selected Melbourne to join Dallas and Los Angeles in becoming
the first cities to offer Uber Air flights, with the goal of beginning
demonstrator flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023.
Hyundai is
using CES to show the S-A1 model aircraft with a cruising speed up to 180 miles
(290 km) per hour.
The
aircraft utilizes "distributed electric propulsion," designed with
multiple rotors that can keep it in the air if one of them fails.
The smaller
rotors also help reduce noise, which the companies said is important to cities.
The Hyundai
vehicle will be piloted initially but over time will become autonomous, the
company said.
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