墨尔本将成为美国以外第一个使用优步飞行出租车的城市

Uber has picked Melbourne as the first city outside the United States to debut its flying taxis. Test flights in the Australian city will begin by next year and the ride-hailing company is aiming to offer a commercial service from 2023, it announced Tuesday.

优步选择墨尔本作为美国以外第一个首次推出飞行出租车的城市。这座澳大利亚城市的试飞将于明年开始，这家叫车公司计划从2023年开始提供商业服务，该公司周二宣布。

"We will see other Australian cities following soon after," Susan Anderson, Uber's regional manager for Australia, said at the company's annual flying car conference in Washington, D.C. Melbourne will be the third city to host trials of Uber's flying taxis, after Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. The electric taxis will be flown by a pilot.

优步澳大利亚地区经理苏珊·安德森(Susan Anderson)在该公司在华盛顿特区举行的年度飞行汽车大会上表示：“不久之后，我们将看到其他澳大利亚城市。”墨尔本将是继得克萨斯州达拉斯和加利福尼亚州洛杉矶之后第三个主办优步飞行出租车测试的城市。电动出租车将由飞行员驾驶。

Uber has partnered with NASA on its flying taxi program, which it calls Elevate, and is one of several companies racing to make aerial vehicles a reality. Other big names in the business include Rolls Royce (RYCEF) and Boeing (BA). Even as it works on developing autonomous, electric flying vehicles — which are still several years away — Uber is already taking its service to the skies in other ways.

优步(Uber)与美国国家航空航天局(NASA)在飞行出租车项目上进行了合作，该项目被称为Elevate，优步是几家竞相让空中交通工具成为现实的公司之一。该行业的其他大牌品牌还包括劳斯莱斯(Rolls Royce)和波音公司(Boeing)等大牌品牌。就在优步致力于开发自主、电动飞行工具的同时，这还需要几年的时间，优步已经通过其他方式将其服务带到了天空。

The company will start a helicopter service on July 9 from Manhattan to JFK Airport. It says customers will save an hour of travel time during the afternoon rush hour by buying a roughly $200 ticket on the eight-minute flight. But the rollout of that service is now clouded by safety concerns about increased air traffic in cities, following two accidents in New York City in recent weeks.

该公司将于7月9日开始从曼哈顿飞往肯尼迪机场的直升机服务。该公司表示，乘客在下午高峰时间购买一张8分钟的机票，大约200美元，可以节省一个小时的旅行时间。但最近几周纽约市发生两起事故后，人们对城市空中交通增加的安全担忧给这项服务的推出蒙上了阴影。

Safety will also be a key concern for Uber in Australia, where it currently has nearly 4 million customers of its regular ride-hailing service. "We will continue to work with communities and governments to ensure that we create an urban aviation rideshare network that is safe, quiet [and] environmentally conscious," Anderson said.

安全问题也将是优步在澳大利亚面临的一个关键问题。目前，优步在澳大利亚的常规叫车服务有近400万客户。安德森说:“我们将继续与社区和政府合作，确保我们创建一个安全、安静、环保的城市航空拼车网络。”