Skip to main content

Airbus-backed Voom could take on Uber’s on-demand flying taxi service

Voom

As Uber prepares to spin the rotors for the first time on its on-demand helicopters, Airbus-backed Voom has revealed it’s also getting ready to expand its own similar service within the U.S.

Currently operating in San Francisco, as well as two cities in Brazil and Mexico, two-year-old Voom will begin adding more locations to its app-based helicopter service in the fall, Fast Company reported.

Related Videos

The news comes just a few weeks after ridesharing company Uber announced its own helicopter shuttle service between Manhattan and nearby JFK Airport, set for launch in July 2019.

Voom is yet to reveal exactly where it will operate its air taxis, so it’s too early to say if it’ll go head to head with the competition, which besides Uber also includes Blade.

Using the tagline, “Book in seconds, fly in minutes,” Voom promises that its fares will be “competitive with ground alternatives.” Looking at its San Francisco service as a guide, flights of seven minutes are likely to cost around $150.

Uber’s Manhattan-JFK flights will take eight minutes and cost between $200 and $225 per person — about three times what you’d pay for the journey in a regular Uber car or similar taxi service. Uber says it will offer a door-to-door service, using its own cars to collect and drop off riders at the start and finish of the journey.

The air taxi services will use conventional helicopters, but the expectation is that at some point in the future, when technology and regulators allow, they’ll switch to electric-powered Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft that are both cleaner and quieter, and therefore better suited for urban environments. Uber has even created its own unit called Uber Elevate to work toward that goal.

Airbus, too, is investing heavily in electric-powered VTOL technology, recently taking the wraps off the autonomous Vahana Alpha Two, its second full-scale demonstrator aircraft and the first with a finished interior. The aircraft features an eight-propeller tilt-wing, while radar, camera, and lidar technology keep the Vahana clear of any hazards while in the air.

There are plenty of exciting developments happening now in the world of small-size electric aircraft, with a growing number of companies creating a range amazing of designs, many geared toward flying-taxi services.

Editors' Recommendations

Rolls-Royce wants to put you in a flying taxi come the early 2020s
rolls royce flying taxi dims

Rolls-Royce wants to take you for a ride in the skies. The U.K.-based jet engine maker has unveiled a new concept for a propulsion system that would power a flying taxi. This would rival similar offerings from Airbus and Uber, and could make air travel far more common (and affordable) than ever before. As it stands, the flying taxi is nothing but an idea, and Rolls-Royce is beginning a search for partners who would help bring this vision to fruition.

The concept electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle can be customized to suit a number of purposes, including personal transport, public transport, and military applications. Rolls-Royce notes that the hardware and software needed to bring this EVTOL to life either already exists, or is now being developed. Consequently, the engine maker hopes that it could be accepting passengers as soon as the "early 2020s."

Read more
Germany plans to put Airbus and Audi’s cool flying taxi concept into the sky
Audi Pop.Up Next

Pop.Up Next 2018

Remember that awesome mobility concept called Pop.up that showed up at the Geneva Auto Show in 2017 and returned again this year, redesigned as Pop.up Next?

Read more
Google co-founder’s self-flying taxi venture takes off in New Zealand
self flying taxi cora

Meet Cora

So-called "flying cars" have come a long way since 2011 when this Russian guy stuck a pair of wings on the side of his own aging motor before screaming down the runway (at 60 mph) and hoping for the best. Remarkably, the contraption flew for 180 meters, though it could only reach an altitude of 3 meters.

Read more