Cars
Singapore is set to have the world’s first flying taxi service by 2023
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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With the news of Uber shutting down its flying taxi project, who will be the first company to lift off its flying taxi service? Well, according to Bloomberg, it will be from a little German company called Volocopter GmbH, and they have plans to launch the service in Singapore by the end of 2023.
2023, in a sense, is right around the corner, so the company has to jump through hoops to get certified in Singapore. This means that they’ll have to complete a ton of flight trials within three years to get evaluated and certified. Not to mention, the company has to figure out what they’re going to be charging customers for these rides.
According to Bloomberg, tickets for a 15-minute trip costing 300 euros ($364) are already available for sale. A press release states that the first route is expected to be a tourist route over Singapore’s Marina Bay. Additionally, sometime down the line, the company plans to venture out into cross-border flights as well.
“Singapore is renowned for its leading role in adapting and living new technologies. Our successful cooperation with EDB, MOT, and CAAS on our previous flight has shown that there is no better place in Asia to launch our electric air taxi services than in Singapore,” says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter.
As for the aircraft Volocopter is planning to use in its flying taxi service, it’s essentially this thing. For the time being, the aircraft will be able to carry a pilot and one customer. That’s it. However, this could change to two passengers once the company is given the official green light after certification.
2023 is still a couple of years away from us, so this gives Volocopter time to iron out all the kinks. Will they actually have their service ready in 2023? My best guess is no, but hey, I’ve been proven wrong before. How many other companies have promised flying taxi services? A lot of them. How many of them have actually delivered? Zero. We’ll see.
Do you think they’ll actually go through with this? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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