Determined to develop autonomous driving technology into businessresaleAfter giving the San Francisco Bay Area startup Aurora Innovation, Uber confirmed that it would be responsible for the uberAir serviceUber ElevateIt will be split and sold, and will be transferred to Joby Aviation, a startup that builds VTOL personal flying vehicles.
Similar to its additional investment in Aurora Innovation, Uber will also invest $7500 million in Joby Aviation. Joby Aviation previously received $5000 million from Uber and collaborated with Toyota on flying vehicles. Uber anticipates that once Joby Aviation receives its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operating license, it will be able to add its flying vehicles to the Uber platform.
Just as Uber has transferred the development costs of autonomous driving technology to external companies and provided the originally expected implementation services through cooperation, thereby reducing related technology research and development costs, the decision to split and sell the Uber Elevate department is probably also to reduce its own cost expenditure ratio.
However, according to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, even if the company sells its autonomous driving technology development business, it still believes that autonomous driving technology application services are very important in the future. Such application resources will still be integrated into Uber services in the future, and it is expected to include the uberAir service originally planned to be promoted by the Uber Elevate department.
Previously, Uber's uberAir service was primarily designed to connect travel needs between congested roads using flying vehicles. For example, it could significantly reduce the driving time between San Francisco and San Jose from more than two hours to around 2 minutes, allowing more people who need to travel between the two places in a shorter time to take advantage of this service.
At the same time, Copter, the helicopter shuttle service previously provided between Kennedy International Airport and Manhattan in New York, can actually be considered part of the uberAir service. However, this service is mainly used to demonstrate Uber's diversified transportation matching operation model. At the same time, the cost of a single transfer is approximately between US$200 and US$250, which is not affordable for ordinary consumers, so it is difficult for it to become a service option for everyone.
