Uber picks Dallas, Fort Worth as test cities for flying vehicle network

April 28th, 2017

Awake Goy

The Aeromobile on display at the Austria’s Pioneer Festival // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Uber is looking to North Texas as a testing ground for its initiative to make intra-urban flying vehicle rides a reality. The company announced Tuesday that Dallas and Fort Worth are its first U.S. partner cities for what its dubbing the “Uber Elevate Network.” The company hopes to have the first demonstration of how such a network of flying, hailed vehicles would work in three years.

Uber is also working with Dallas’ Hillwood Properties to plan vertiports, sites where the aircraft would pick up and drop off passengers. Fort Worth’s Bell Helicopter is among companies partnering with Uber to help develop the actual vehicles, called VTOLs because they would vertically take off and land.

The announcement was made at a three-day Uber Elevate Summit being held in Dallas.

“This is an opportunity for our city to show leaders from around the world and across industries why Dallas should be a part of building a better future for urban mobility,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said in a prepared statement.

Uber’s ambitious plans comes as the company experienced fast revenue growth but $2.8 billion in losses last year. Tuesday’s announcements also comes on the heels of a series of scandals at Uber, including several of its top executives exiting the company in fast succession and amid an ongoing internal investigation into sexual harassment claims. Uber also faced widespread customer backlash earlier this year for a decision to keep operating at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City amid a taxicab boycott in response to President Trump’s initial travel ban.