Delivery drones or air taxis: Which will come to your city first? Mark Moore, director of strategy for Uber Elevate, believes piloted air taxis will be ferrying passengers around downtowns long before unmanned aircraft are delivering packages to backyards. Speaking at the Heli-Expo conference in Anaheim, California, Moore was responding to a question about why Uber Elevate was not using delivery drones as a stepping stone to public acceptance of urban air mobility (UAM). But his answer says much about how Uber-and the industry-is approaching the rollout of air taxi services. While UAM will use new types of electric verti-cal-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air vehicles, it is expected to begin in familiar territory-the routes between business centers and airports that helicopters fly today in many cities around the world.
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