Uber Will Test Its Flying Taxis in MelbourneUber also considered Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paris, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Tokyo and Sydney.

Uber haschosenthe third test city to join Dallas and Los Angeles for its flying taxi trials: Melbourne, Australia. The third location was supposed to be Dubai, but negotiations fell through and prompted the companyto look foranother site for trials outside the U.S. Uber considered Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paris, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Tokyo and Sydney. In the end, Melbourne won.

Susan Anderson, Uber's Regional General Manager for Australia, New Zealand and North Asia, toldReutersthat it's because the Australian government "adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology." Melbourne, in particular, has a "unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology" that make it perfect for the trials.

The ride-hailing service plans to start testing UberAir's electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicles in 2020, three years before the service's expected launch. Melbourne's test flights will take passengers from one of the Westfield shopping centers to the city's main international airport. That's a 12-mile journey that typically takes 25 minutes or so by car -- with a flying taxi, it'll only take 10 minutes. Passengers will be able to book flights through the Uber app like any other ride for pricescomparableto UberX's, though they have to be cool with making their way to and from landing pads called "Skyports."

Uber is currentlyworking witha number of companies to design its flying vehicles. It also workingwith NASA创造一个空中交通控制系统来管理its flying taxi fleet.