UBER ANNOUNCED Australia as the first international market for Uber Air, with Melbourne being selected as the third official pilot city. Melbourne joins Dallas and Los Angeles as pilot cities for the program, with test flights due to start in 2020.
Taking Uber’s tech to the sky, Uber Air aims to open up urban air mobility, and help alleviate transport congestion on the ground. According to Uber, the vision is for safe, quiet electric vehicles transporting tens of thousands of people across cities for the same price as an UberX trip over the same distance.
Susan Anderson, regional general manager for Uber in Australia, New Zealand and North Asia made the announcement at Uber’s global Elevate (Uber Air) Summit in Washington in early June. “Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology. This, coupled with Melbourne’s unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, makes Melbourne the perfect third launch city for Uber Air. We will see other Australian cities following soon after.”
Shown here: The Bell Nexus is one of several vehicles that will make up the Uber Elevate fleet.