Uber has picked Melbourne as the first city outside the United States to debut its flying taxis. Test flights in the Australian city will begin by next year, and the ride-hailing company is aiming to offer a commercial service from 2023.

"We will see other Australian cities following soon after," Susan Anderson, Uber's regional manager for Australia, said at the company's annual flying car conference in Washington, D.C.

Melbourne will be the third city to host trials of Uber's flying taxis, after Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. The electric taxis will be flown by a pilot. Uber has partnered with NASA on its flying taxi program, which it calls Elevate, and is one of several companies racing to make aerial vehicles a reality. Other big names in the business include Rolls Royce (RYCEF) and Boeing (BA).

Safety will be a key concern for Uber in Australia, where it currently has nearly 4 million customers of its regular ride-hailing service.

"We will continue to work with communities and governments to ensure that we create an urban aviation rideshare network that is safe, quiet [and] environmentally conscious," Anderson said.

SOURCE (abridged): https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/12/tech/uber-melbourne-flying-taxis/index.html

Flying Taxi
The world is coming to an end

What are these people trying to turn this world into?