Hanging from the ceiling of the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall at CES 2020 was a full-size aircraft with gently spinning rotors. Hyundai had brought a flying taxi to a car show, and it had built the thing with Uber.
The aircraft is called the S-A1. It seats five, a pilot plus four passengers, and it was developed with Uber Elevate in mind. According to CNET, Hyundai will build and deploy the vehicles using its experience mass-producing cars. Uber supplies the other half: airspace support, links to ground transport and an aerial rideshare network, which CNET likened to an Elevate option sitting in the Uber app beside XLs and scooters.
How the S-A1 flies
The design borrows from a quadcopter. Props sit in a vertical orientation for takeoff and landing, and once the craft reaches a cruising altitude between 1,000 and 2,000 feet they tilt forward and it flies like an airplane. ExtremeTech counts two tilting rotors on the tail and 10 more on the main wing. Hyundai says the many small electric motors make the craft quieter than even the quietest combustion-engine helicopters.
Speed and range are where the two outlets differ slightly. ExtremeTech gave a cruise speed of 290 km/h, or 180 mph, and a range of 100 km. CNET reported a claimed 200 mph and a range of around 60 miles. Both agree on the charging claim: Hyundai expects 5 to 7 minutes between trips with rapid charging. CNET’s back-of-envelope trips included Manhattan to Trenton, New Jersey, or San Francisco to San Jose, in about 20 minutes.
A pilot would fly the aircraft early on. Hyundai adds that autonomous operation could follow once the relevant technologies are developed.
Three pieces of one system
The S-A1 was one of a trio of concepts Hyundai showed. The second, the Hub, is a small building with a landing pad on top and docking bays below, meant to fit in tight city spaces. Aircraft land on its Skyport and passengers step off to meet ground transport, whether Uber, Lyft or Hyundai’s own Purpose Built Vehicle.
That third concept, the PBV, is a fully electric, fully autonomous box 13 to 20 feet long. CNET was unimpressed, calling it basically a box on wheels and comparing it to the Toyota e-Palette and Mercedes-Benz Vision Urbanetic. Hyundai says the interior can be reconfigured into a coffee shop, a clinic or a pharmacy on the way to work.
Euisun Chung, executive vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, framed it in grand terms: “UAM, PBV, and Hub will revitalize cities by removing urban boundaries.”
Uber’s crowded partner list
Hyundai is not Uber’s only aircraft partner. It joins Bell, Embraer, Joby Aviation, Pipistrel Aircraft, Karem Aircraft and Jaunt Air Mobility, and most of those are aeronautics firms. ExtremeTech also lists Aurora Flight Sciences. The carmaker’s value is manufacturing know-how that Uber lacks.
Uber first floated Elevate in a 2016 white paper. It wants flight demonstrations in 2020, with commercial service for riders planned for 2023. ExtremeTech was blunt about what stands between the concept and passengers: finding the right vehicles and finding land.
Sources
- The Hyundai-Uber Electric Flying-Car Taxi: Hey, Why Not? | Extremetech
- Hyundai and Uber Elevate debut urban air taxi concept S-A1 – CNET
