Fully electric and hybrid fleets. Improved integrated into local transport networks. Flying vehicles.

UBER have recently set out a new vision for their company, their drivers and their riders – as their new leadership team plan the next phases of UBER’s incredible revolution. They’re heading in a new direction – and they’ll be joining us for the West Yorkshire Economic Growth Conference to discuss how their plans will unlock opportunities, improve productivity within the region and boost the economy.

One of their ambitious visions is to introduce flying vehicles into their fleet as the tech giant plans to connect the whole of the UK with drone like taxis. Once thought to be a site we’d only see in movies such as Back to the Future the firm is now leading the race to offer short and long-distance transport to compete with the rail and bus networks as they begin working with NASA on vertical take-off and landing vehicles.

There are some key benefits to establishing such transport models – one including the lack of changes needed to the environment and limited infrastructure changes which would be needed to be done on an already built up city area.

UBER has already invested £17m into a flying vehicle research facility which is in France, the first research centre it’s opened outside of the USA which shows their commitment to growth across Europe. They’ll now look to work with three major cities within the next five years to establish what ‘UBER-AIR’ could look like and potentially begin commercial operations.

Tom Younger, Head of UK & ROI Cities for UBER said: ”In the long-term it makes sense to use the skies for routine travel between cities. UberAIR will allow consumers to take long-distance trips easily and quickly between cities – for instance, from Manchester city centre to Liverpool. It will connect all these northern powerhouses together. We’ll be looking to repurpose the tops of buildings in cities that are effectively unused. They could all become facilities for what we call ‘vertiports’ – the spaces where our vehicles would pick up passengers. Initially this would be quite an expensive product, but over time – when people mass-adopt it – we’ll start to see more utilisation and we’ll see an increase in the number of vehicles.”

The vision is for UBER-AIR to work in the same format as UBER currently works – all ordered through the push of a button through an application. Sites being looked at for potential launch cities include Paris and London – alongside Dallas and Los Angeles within the United States, and flights could be began as early as 2020.

The North of England is also set to be a real focus of the development as UBER praised the ‘innovation’ on display within the regions with Younger adding: ”Leeds and Manchester were two of the quickest cities to grow with Uber. Users took it and it grew very quickly.”

The vision of UBER isn’t just flying cars across the skyline within UK cities, but they’re also looking at ways to improve their environmental impact and improve the customer journey and experience. They’ve began trials which will see them pay drivers in certain countries and states an additional fee for driving electric vehicles, whilst they’re looking to run an all-electric/hybrid car fleet by 2025.

Another key area of interest for them is integrating their product better with bus and train journeys – scheduling riders around bus and train journeys. Younger said: ”We want to become a mass transit app so that when you use the app, you can book a train or bus and then get an Uber home. We also want Uber to become a leader in electric; we want to be pioneering the movement towards a cleaner city. There is a lot of misconceptions about Uber still, and we’re doing all we can to make sure that people understand the value we can add as a multi-modal transport option and not just a taxi app.”

We’re delighted the have UBER confirmed as a speaker on our infrastructure panel at the West Yorkshire Economic Growth Conference where their Head of UK North Cities will be discussing what UBER will be bringing to the region and how that’ll positivity impact the regional economy, and how it integrates into the bigger transport picture.