Grab Trials Air Taxi In Singapore, Will Indonesia Get It?

Taxi Strike Volocopter (Doc. Grab)

JAKARTA - German airline startup Volocopter is reported to have collaborated with the Grab transportation mode service. Later this air taxi service will be ready to fly in the Singapore and Southeast Asia region.

This collaboration includes a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that has been signed by both parties in providing and developing delivery services in a city or region suitable for transportation by air.

Volocopter recently demonstrated its electric aircraft 2X, at a technology conference in Singapore, complete with a temporary landing pad, the VoloPort. This project is intended to illustrate how the technology of the future can develop.

The aircraft is a small, egg-sized multicopter equipped with an 18 rotor engine. Basically, a Volocopter is an air taxi that is made to carry one passenger when there is traffic jam on the ground, overcrowding and road closures, with a distance of about 30 kilometers.

Volocopter collaboration with Grab (doc. Grab)

But instead of facilitating inter-city air travel such as going to the airport, Volocopter wants to focus on local travel. When the company starts commercial flights in 2022, it says passengers will be flown from one VoloPort to another.

Going forward by 2035, Volocopter aims to have dozens of VoloPorts across Singapore, each with a capacity to handle 10,000 passengers per day, and do not require special infrastructure so that the 2X aircraft can carry passengers to the mall.

The partnership with Grab is another sign that Volocopter sees Southeast Asia as the launching place for their aerial ambitions. Headquartered in Singapore, Grab also operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and others.

"This collaboration also offers the potential for much greater cooperation, ultimately expanding intermodal mobility to the skies," Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, said in an official statement as quoted by The Verge.

Grab isn't the only service eyeing air taxis as a potential investment. Summarized from Era.id, Uber is also preparing its air taxi service which will soon be launched in 2023.

Together with @Grab we are conducting a #feasibility study for #airtaxi operations in Southeast Asia! Find the full story here: https: //t.co/qhf6rD6T0V#UAM #Grab #innovation #Volocopter #mobility #airtaxi #Singapore pic. twitter.com/gHTa2aymVM

- Volocopter (@volocopter) February 18, 2020

The company from Uncle Sam's country (Uber) chose Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, as the first international test site for UberAIR flying taxi services.

Uber had previously selected Dubai as the location for its first international test, but they suspended plans in the Middle East and then shifted it to Australia. Not only Melbourne, the unmanned taxi will also air in a number of United States cities, including Dallas and Los Angles in 2020, before being commercially operated in 2023.

Several major technology companies have also promised to launch more revolutionary advanced aircraft over the past years, but all of that is just a matter of discourse. Like Kitty Hawk, a flying car company supported by Google co-founder Larry Page.

Unfortunately the prototype failed, and is undergoing repairs amid reports of aircraft damage and battery fires. So that not many electric VTOL-based air taxis are ready to fly and serve other modes of transportation.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, Grab has just launched an environmentally friendly electric taxi service. To reduce emission problems caused by traffic jams. Maybe later, Grab also plans to bring its air taxi service to Jakarta.