Uber Designing Their Own Batteries for Flying Taxi

[DooKey]

Uber has their eyes set on the future with their Uber Elevate flying taxi service. They hope to begin deployment of flying taxis by 2023 and plan to transition them to autonomous capability sometime in the future. The taxi is going to be designed and built by others, but they are doing all of the battery work. To make this happen they hired a former Tesla battery engineer and the new batteries will have sufficient power for VTOL with a 60 mile range. To top that off the battery pack will be refreshed in five minutes to help further increase range. Sounds too good to be true if you ask me, however, if they accomplish what they are trying to do it will be an engineering marvel. Good luck, Uber.

This is a departure for Elevate, whose model is to contract with other companies, such as Bell Helicopter and Embraer, to develop the craft that ferry its passengers. While those contractors will still build most of each plane, the battery engineering will come from Uber.

 

[BSmith]

But will it take out the drone, delivering a bicycle and not be aware it did it?

What? Too soon?

 

[Sonicks]

They can't even get a self-driving car with a human driver in it to work properly.

Lofty goals are lofty goals.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Don't know why, why not go to a proven battery tech company and tell them what you need for this or that application.

 

[sfsuphysics]

They hope to begin deployment of flying taxis by 2023

https://www.hardocp.com/news/2018/04/19/uber_designing_their_own_batteries_for_flying_taxi
They do know what year it is right? They hope to begin DEPLOYMENT in 5 years? So they already have working prototypes that are just about to go under the strict guidelines/testing of the FAA?

 

[Gweenz]

Cool, put Kalanick on the initial test flight.

 

[MrDeaf]

Watch it take out a Cessna this time

 

[PenGunn]

LOL. Another packager of 18650s. I have 125, can I play.

 

[Lakados]

The technology already exists and has already been deployed else ware in the world

https://nypost.com/2017/09/26/dubai-completes-first-flying-taxi-test-flight/

The real question is which features does Uber think are unnecessary to its deployment so they can try to do it cheaper.

 

[Jagger100]

But will it take out the drone, delivering a bicycle and not be aware it did it?

What? Too soon?

No trying to change the topic from Autonomous to flying cars was too soon.

 

[Exavior]

Wouldn't trust anything they make or that have their name on it ever.

That said the fact that they have enough money to design their own cars vs just buying a fleet from somebody else, and now design a flying car means they could pay drivers a lot more if they have that much profit.

 

[Lazer1337]

Wouldn't trust anything they make or that have their name on it ever.

That said the fact that they have enough money to design their own cars vs just buying a fleet from somebody else, and now design a flying car means they could pay drivers a lot more if they have that much profit.

Why? They don’t care about the drivers. They can’t wait to replace them.

 

[MMitch]

Well I guess you can't hit pedestrian while flying ? That solves the radar issue....

 

[jedijeb13]

Well I guess you can't hit pedestrian while flying ? That solves the radar issue....

But geese will soon be extinct.

 

[D4vid4f]

There is no way this will be usable any time soon, hopeful....

 

[-Anomie-]

Just another Uber scam to generate venture capital investment $$, there's no way this will be cleared for use by the FAA or law enforcement in five years, if ever. There's a reason aircraft take off and land at airports and not any flat spot they want. Just imagining the air traffic control problems this would cause in a city like Los Angeles, and where the f*** are you going to land to pick up or drop off a passenger in lower Manhattan or the in the Loop in Chicago?

 

[thesmokingman]

This way they can be the first to fly it into a high rise cuz they cheaped out on sensors?

 

[Exavior]

Why? They don’t care about the drivers. They can’t wait to replace them.

I mean that from the standpoint that they could technically afford to pay them more. There are many reports about how they fuck over drivers, this just goes to show that they could afford to no do so. Understanding that from the business side more profit is better than paying employees, sorry contractors, what they are worth.