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Uber Copter Will Now Fly You Over City Gridlock For $200

Uber Copter Will Now Fly You Over City Gridlock For $200

Uber Copter
Uber Copter offers 8-minute helicopter flights in NYC. Critics say that with limited pick-up and drop-off points, it doesn’t save much time. In this Oct. 2, 2019 photo, an Uber helicopter approaches the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. Uber expanded its helicopter service on Oct. 3, between lower Manhattan and JFK Airport, making it available to all Uber riders with iPhones. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Uber is now offering helicopter flights in parts of New York City to all its users for $200 to $225 per person.

Uber Copter, which offers flights for trips originating from Houston Street during weekday afternoons, is available to all iPhone users. Top-status Uber customers started receiving the service in July.

Uber Copter involves choppers and cars

The price includes Uber car rides on both legs of the trip in addition to the eight-minute helicopter ride, which has limited pick-up and drop-off points, according to Uber.

“Copter is not just about the air ride, but the overall journey. (We) can weave together our network of cars on the ground with the air vehicles,” said Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate.

“You can imagine Uber Copter is (as) kind of being the first version of that future product — that is fundamentally what we think of as multimodal.”

Already, people are complaining about the new service.

writer for CNN Business lamented that there were additional minutes tacked onto her eight-minute copter ride and she didn’t save much time versus the option of using Uber X.

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Others, like The Atlantic’s transport reporter Angie Schmitt, claim that chopper-hailing services are a sign of growing inequality in cities.

The fast-growing ride-hailing app startup plans to launch a class of flying electric vehicles that it says will be able to take off and land vertically by 2032.

The electric aircraft are expected to initially be available in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Melbourne.