When it comes to Uber, aerial taxis have been a talking point for quite some time now. Today however, we have more to add on to that. The ride-hailing giant has today announced the concept of — what it fancily calls — ‘Skyports’.
It is speculated that Uber is set to debut their aerial transportation system in 2023, with demo runs set to commence in 2020. Uber’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles have been in the works for a few years and the company is set to further dominate the public transportation market.
These areas — or “Skyports” — will enable the transport of more than 4000 passengers per hour and allow recharge of Uber’s eVTOLs in-between trips.
A few days ago, the company announced that they had teamed up with Karem Aircraft to develop these electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. This news came right after Uber announced their concept designs for these eVTOL vehicles.
Many companies have presented their prospective design concepts for Uber’s landing modules. Corgan, a design and architecture firm, have presented their design for what could be a basic blueprint for all of Uber’s “Skyports”. Corgon also proposed that basic components could be adapted in even open spaces, on top of parking garages and even roofs of skyscrapers.
“The Station reconnects once divided neighborhoods that reside on opposite sides of the highway and therefore serves as a new community gathering point,” according to Corgan’s design prospective. Corgon also intends to use these Skyports as community hub, which would be capable of hosting concerts, art festivals and botanical gardens.
Concept from Gannett Fleming, which can support up to 52 eVTOLs per hour, per module and supports solar recharging, were also unveiled. Their concept also features robots, to rotate the aircrafts while parked to better position them for immediate takeoff. Pickard Chilton and Arup took a more vertical approach with their design for efficiency purposes. Humphreys & Partners and The Beck Group adopted a ‘bee-hive’ design in their concepts.
