Uber Joins Forces With Joby Aviation To Launch An Air Taxi Service By 2023 (theverge.com) 22
Uber is joining forces with California-based aerospace company Joby Aviation to launch urban air-taxi services in select locations by 2023. The Verge reports: Joby is the brainchild of inventor JoeBen Bevirt, who started the company in 2009. The company operated in relative obscurity until 2018, when Joby announced it had raised a surprising $100 million from a variety of investors, including the venture capital arms of Intel, Toyota, and JetBlue. The money helped finance development of the company's air taxi prototype, which has been conducting test flights at Joby's private airfield in Northern California.
Unlike the dozens of other companies that are currently building electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Joby has kept much of its project under wraps. The few renderings that are out there show a plane-drone hybrid with 12 rotors and room in the cabin for four passengers, though a spokesperson previously cautioned that what Joby is working on now is "entirely new." The company has yet to provide any recent photographs or images of its prototype aircraft. [...] Uber says that it has signed a multiyear commercial contract with Joby to "launch a fast, reliable, clean and affordable urban air taxi service in select markets." Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, nor would they comment on whether there was any money exchanged. The report notes that Joby "will supply and operate the electric air taxies, and Uber will provide air traffic control help, landing pad construction, connections to ground transportation, and, of course, its ride-share network reconfigured to allow customers to hail flying cars rather than regular, terrestrial ones."
Unlike the dozens of other companies that are currently building electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Joby has kept much of its project under wraps. The few renderings that are out there show a plane-drone hybrid with 12 rotors and room in the cabin for four passengers, though a spokesperson previously cautioned that what Joby is working on now is "entirely new." The company has yet to provide any recent photographs or images of its prototype aircraft. [...] Uber says that it has signed a multiyear commercial contract with Joby to "launch a fast, reliable, clean and affordable urban air taxi service in select markets." Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, nor would they comment on whether there was any money exchanged. The report notes that Joby "will supply and operate the electric air taxies, and Uber will provide air traffic control help, landing pad construction, connections to ground transportation, and, of course, its ride-share network reconfigured to allow customers to hail flying cars rather than regular, terrestrial ones."
entirely new? (Score:2)
so it's .. ..... ... a scaled up drone based on scaled up drone technology and totally new and tootally not something seen before?
but what I want to know is, is it designed like that more efficient than a traditional chopper in staying up in the air?
I don't think it matters that much if it can make a controlled landing under power loss that much, it's going to have a parachute emergency system anyhow(unless they're like totally insane).
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so it's .. ..... ... a scaled up drone based on scaled up drone technology and totally new and tootally not something seen before?
Seldom have we seen Uber attempt to distract from their impending bankruptcy by making tech news. Previously it was all about assaults in their office. This is something new.
Re: entirely new? (Score:2)
Well it works for musk so why not for them? Though i don"t quite get it why they insist on spending ridiculous amounts on r&d that will not do them any good for a few decades. They should just pump the money from whatever market they got now and spend the money paying off politicians and buying off traditional taxi companies.
I mean they could totally just have bought the cab companies in most of the world by now in places where they have medallions or such permit systems...
The FAA won't allow "ride sharing" arrangements.. (Score:3)
Uber in the air may be a dream, one that will never come true..
The FAA has already ruled that "ride sharing" is not allowed for private pilots. Operations like Uber will *not* be allowed to operate aircraft services like they do taxi services now. Such operations are considered "commercial" and will operate under a different set of regulations than your average private aircraft.
I don't think Uber is prepared to operate an air charter service, nor could they afford to set one up if they tried. And the dream of having a bunch of private pilots show up in flying cars having been summoned by your Uber app is more of a nightmare of red tape. Apart from the issue that no flying cars really exist nor are they likely too given the economics of the situation, the FAA just isn't going to be too accommodating and isn't likely to change the rules to allow it.
Uber skates around local taxi service laws as it is, bypassing a host of regulations imposed by thousands of local jurisdictions, but when they take to the air, the FAA becomes the authority, and they've already said "no" to the Uber model of ride sharing. People have tried it, and the FAA shut them down, handed out fines and took away pilots licenses to show they where serious. Unless they operate under the charter air service rules, the FAA is not going to allow this Uber thing to take off into the air.
Delivering packages by drone is one thing, carrying passengers for money, quite another when you are talking about flying.
Re: The FAA won't allow "ride sharing" arrangement (Score:3)
Its a commercial operation with specifc purpose built vehicles, not ride sharing.
Not that its likely to fly or be profitable... But the only uber like thing about it would be using the app to reserve a flight
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This is absolutely what they must have planned. Self-piloting drones is actually a significantly simpler problem than self-driving cars. I'm sure that current technology could solve this problem, so why would they bother having a human pilot?
Why? Because automation fails and people will die. It's bad enough WITH pilots riding herd on the automation. Consider the MCAS system, works great on that 737 MAX, until it doesn't, then even WITH pilots folks die sometimes.
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the human pilot would be necessary to inspect the vehicle, help passengers on off and to press the abort-panic button.
you know same you do lasik. the main reason to have the doctor there at the time when the machine operates is just to give the okay and to press abort if needed.
who cares though? they don't even have the machine yet. they're selling the machine for an use before they have the machine. think about that. if the machine(the drone style chopper thingy) could fly and fly cheaper than choppers do
Air Taxi Service in 2023 (Score:1)
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Theyâ(TM)ll sure be disappointed not to have a sun when they get there. They were kinda counting on the sun...
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The only company doing self-driving car research who has had a fatal accident. Gives me lots of confidence.
I will eat the sun. (Score:2)
If Uber creates a financially viable self-flying car service in 2023, I will eat the sun.
The whole sun. I will eat it.
If the car magazine journalist has spies (Score:2)
If your gossip tabloid journalists have their telephoto or special zoom lenses for their unique brand of reporting, maybe just one of them could get lucky and wind up with an exclusive
Poor Joby (Score:2)
Uber has repeatedly demonstrated they do the wrong thing when faced with an ethically dillemna. I hope Joby survives the partnership.
Why is it better than an electric helicopter? (Score:2)
The efficiency of a helicopter depends on it moving a large volume of air slowly (momentum = MV, energy = .5 MV^2) and I don't see how lots of small props can move as much air as a very large one. (if you look at the drawings / photos, the cross section of the props looks smaller than the largest single rotor that would fit.
Multi-prop designs are simpler and scale well to small sizes (no complex blade hub) but I don't see how they can compete with a conventional design.
The tilt-rotor type design is effi
Re: Why is it better than an electric helicopter? (Score:2)
Why is it better than an electric helicopter?
Can't you see just from looking at it that it has a lifting body design with VTOL capability??
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Lifting bodies are only effective at high speeds an tend to have poor lift to drag ratios. (note how rarely they are used in subsonic aircraft, despite having been invented at least 50 years ago).
They do look great in pictures though . No one likes the esthetics of big wings and lift blades.
2023 is significant - year of Perfect Dark! (Score:1)
FAA says no. (Score:1)
There is no such thing as a non pilot operated aircraft. If you want to talk about an up to 18 inch device that holds a camera and no humans, welcome to up to 400ft excluding 5 miles from airports.
If you want to talk about something ferrying human beings -- at least in the United States -- it will be pilot operated and fly under 14 CFR 135. There's no middle ground.
Sorry, Uber apologists, wishfulls, and fans. This is not going to be a thing.
Ehud Gavron
Tucson AZ
FAA CPL-H