Moses Akaigwe
One of the highpoints of this year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2020) held in Las Vegas, United States of America recently {from January 6 to 9} was the world premiere of the first concept Personal Air Vehicle {PAV} courtesy of Hyundai Motor Company.
Named ‘S-A1’, the concept PAV is the product of a partnership between Hyundai and Uber on the development of Uber Air Taxi.
The concept vehicle represents the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) solution, which was part of the innovative vision for urban mobility to help vitalise human-centered future cities presented by Hyundai at the CES 2020.
The Korean brand is responsible for the production and deployment while Uber is responsible for airspace support services, connections to ground transportation and customer interface.
The PAV will be operated initially by a pilot during the early stages of commercialisation and enable autonomous operation once the relevant technologies are developed.
Hyundai has the manufacturing capacity and expertise required to develop and mass-produce transportation vehicles such as the PAV. Uber is the world’s largest mobility company.
“Hyundai is our first vehicle partner with experience of manufacturing passenger cars on a global scale. We believe Hyundai has the potential to build Uber Air vehicles at rates unseen in the current aerospace industry, producing high quality, reliable aircraft at high volumes to drive down passenger costs per trip. Combining Hyundai’s manufacturing muscle with Uber’s technology platform represents a giant leap forward for launching a vibrant air taxi network in coming years,” said Eric Allison, Head of Uber Elevate.
Hyundai plans to strengthen its partnerships with global companies like Uber and accelerate its UAM business, including developing world-class PAVs, offering fleet service and maintenance, and developing skyports.
Hyundai is the first automaker to join the Uber Elevate initiative with the air vehicle concept that makes use of a NASA-inspired approach by publicly releasing vehicle design concepts so any company can use them to innovate their air taxi models and engineering technologies.
The S-A1 is designed to cruise at a speed of up to 290km/h, a cruising altitude of around 300 to 600m above ground and to fly trips with a range of up to 100km. The full electric model is powered by distributed electric propulsion and will require about five to seven minutes for recharging.
To realise its vision, Hyundai Motor also showcased {in addition to UAM} two other mobility solutions, comprising Purpose Built Vehicle (PBV) and Hub, a place for mobility transfer and community activities.
Based on these mobility solutions, Hyundai aims to free future cities and people from constraints of time and space and allow them to create more value in their lives.
Hyundai’s representative in Nigeria, Hyundai Motors Nigeria Limited, a part of the Stallion Motors, which made news of the auto maker’s participation in CES 2020 available to the local media, described the mobility solutions as the innovations of a future-focused manufacturer.