Uber is building a development center for flying taxis in France

The self-managed Uber car program has shown itself poorly this week. But their initiative to create flying articles, ah, is breaking away from the earth. The company announced today in a press release that it will open a research station Uber Elevate in Paris. In the next five years, scientists will spend 23.4 million dollars to develop and study the management of air traffic, while respecting European rules.

This is the first laboratory of Uber aircraft outside of the United States, but it was not a big surprise to her creation in France. A year ago, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he plans to turn France into a “start-up country”, and has since kept his word.

In addition to the case of Uber, France carried out several important breakthroughs this week: Facebook will pay 48 scholarships in the field of artificial intelligence in French universities; IBM will create 1,800 jobs in the country, and the delivery of Deliveroo products will invest about 117 million in the next five years. Local governments even offered to build test tracks Hyperloop.

And yet, the most ambitious project of all these will be flying cars Uber. Partly this is due to the fact that the airspace is heavily regulated and it is not yet clear in what categories these types of aircraft will turn out – not planes yet, but not drones. Uber will have to work with the local space agency and the Federal Aviation Administration to develop air traffic regulations.

In France commercial drones must have well-trained operators, some of which may require pilot licenses. Assuming that Uber devices will carry people through the air, it can be decided that their dispatchers will also need accreditation.