Hyundai, Uber Partner On Air Taxis

Hyundai and Uber announced a partnership aimed at developing air taxis for a “future aerial ride share network” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Monday. As part of the announcement, the companies unveiled the Hyundai S-A1 Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concept. According to Hyundai, it will “produce and deploy” the S-A1 while Uber provides airspace support services, connections to ground transportation and customer interfaces. “Hyundai is our first vehicle partner with experience of manufacturing passenger cars on a global scale,” said Uber's Eric Allison. “We believe Hyundai has the potential to build Uber Air vehicles at rates unseen in the current aerospace industry, producing high quality, reliable aircraft at high volumes to drive down passenger costs per trip.”

The four-passenger S-A1 is designed to fly at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,000 feet AGL. It is expected to have a range of about 60 miles (100 km/54 NM), cruise speed of up to 180 MPH (290 kph/156 knots), and recharging time of around five to seven minutes. Hyundai says it intends for the aircraft to be piloted initially, but eventually operate autonomously.