Archer, an electric aircraft manufacturer aims to make and launch flying taxis. The co-CEO of Archer, Adam Goldstein told Fox Business that their network could launch in Los Angeles within three years. Goldstein told host Stuart Varney that at present they are in the certification process right now with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and their target is to achieve through that certification process.
Furthermore, Archer will consist of “the first urban electric jet,” which is an upright vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that has the ability to travel 150 miles in thirty minutes, according to Archer’s website. Goldstein further said that team worked on this technology for more than ten years. So, it is not a new technology. His team is moving out of the reality of that Research and Development phase and moving more into the real commercialization phase.
The flying taxi service will provide urban air mobility with normal trips of less than a hundred miles. According to Goldstein, trips like LAX to Beverly Hills or maybe LAX to maybe Malibu would typically take passengers something like sixty minutes or more than ninety minutes on the ground.
Comparison of UberX and Archer’s ride prices
Furthermore, he compared the Archer’s ride cost to UberX pricing. Goldstein explained that UberX charges $3 to $4 per passenger per mile. So, in the case of a trip like Manhattan to John F. Kennedy, that would be between sixty dollars to seventy dollars in an UberX, and that would cost something similar in an Archer vehicle as well.
Goldstein clarifies the low cost is because of going electric, which simplifies the vehicles and lessens fuel costs and maintenance. At the moment, people have vehicles that are luxury products but affordable to the mass market. On the other side, the City of Los Angeles announced the successful Urban Air Mobility Partnership. Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles said that the latest initiative will help shape the city into a main player in the aerial mobility race.
The agreement is between the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, the Urban Air Mobility Partnership of Hyundai Motor Group, and Urban Movement Labs. Garcetti states that his city would work with Urban Movement Labs to produce vertiports for electric vehicle Vertical Takeoff & Landing in the area. Affectionally, he acknowledged that LA needs to find and resolve challenges from various stakeholders locally surrounding public property and airspace rights.
Last year, the LA Department of Transportation published a report, in collaboration with FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), named “the Principles of Urban Sky” that establishes a policy road map for executing urban air mobility in Los Angeles.
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