1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,640
Speaker 1: Hi, it's Action. This week. As an extra, we're bringing

2
00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:07,160
Speaker 1: you a fun episode from The Big Take about flying taxis.

3
00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:11,160
Speaker 1: Yes they're real. There might even be a commercial one

4
00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,360
Speaker 1: flying as soon as this year. If you're a new

5
00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:16,639
Speaker 1: listener to Zero, I would also urge you to go

6
00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:19,800
Speaker 1: back into the archives and listen to a show about

7
00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:22,920
Speaker 1: flying taxis we did on Zero where I was super

8
00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:26,360
Speaker 1: skeptical that it can be a climate solution. You can

9
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,960
Speaker 1: find the link in the show notes. Enjoy The Big Take.

10
00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:36,519
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.

11
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:42,680
Speaker 3: I'm about to step into a flying taxi.

12
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:44,080
Speaker 2: And if that's not.

13
00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,360
Speaker 3: Radical enough for you, this one has no pilot.

14
00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,680
Speaker 4: That's Bloomberg reporter Colin Murphy. He's based in Beijing, and

15
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 4: he volunteered to go on a test flight in a

16
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,480
Speaker 4: test model of a flying taxi in the southern Chinese

17
00:00:58,480 --> 00:00:59,600
Speaker 4: city of Guangzhou.

18
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:04,840
Speaker 3: First, the fasten your okay, But I'm just gonna fasten

19
00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:05,800
Speaker 3: the seat pots.

20
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:11,199
Speaker 2: And in the air, please do not touch the door. Okay,

21
00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:12,959
Speaker 2: I got it, thank you.

22
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,760
Speaker 3: So I'm buckled in and we're just about to take off.

23
00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,200
Speaker 3: I can't believe I'm doing this and that there's nobody

24
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:20,839
Speaker 3: flying this.

25
00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,279
Speaker 4: Column did not touch the door as instructed and tried

26
00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,240
Speaker 4: to stay calm as the machine shot one hundred feet

27
00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:30,800
Speaker 4: up into the.

28
00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:40,360
Speaker 3: Air out in the window.

29
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,639
Speaker 4: The prototype vehicle column rode In was designed by China

30
00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:50,640
Speaker 4: based e Hang Holdings, and it could become the world's

31
00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,560
Speaker 4: first commercially operating flying taxi as soon as this year.

32
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,040
Speaker 5: It's here, and it's now, and it's probably a lot

33
00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,240
Speaker 5: earlier than people have any idea about it.

34
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,120
Speaker 4: That's Angus Whitley, a Bloomberg Global business reporter based in Sydney.

35
00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:10,200
Speaker 4: He says that right now, all over the world, transportation

36
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,800
Speaker 4: companies are racing to put driverless cars into the sky.

37
00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,520
Speaker 4: Billions of dollars in investments and venture capital have fueled

38
00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:21,760
Speaker 4: the technology up to this point, and companies like EHang

39
00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:25,160
Speaker 4: have started to prove the concept. But now comes the

40
00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,519
Speaker 4: hard part tackling the regulatory and logistical hurdles standing in

41
00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,760
Speaker 4: the way of making flying taxi fleets commercially viable. And

42
00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 4: it turns out where in the world these businesses are

43
00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 4: operating could play a critical role in who takes off first.

44
00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 4: Here's Colum again.

45
00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 3: It's a mode of transport that has yet to take off,

46
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,320
Speaker 3: but by some estimates could be worth as much as

47
00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,200
Speaker 3: one trillion dollars by twenty forty.

48
00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,960
Speaker 4: This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah

49
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,560
Speaker 4: holder Day on the show the Flying Taxi Companies that

50
00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,960
Speaker 4: are determined to turn what was once a fantasy into

51
00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:19,359
Speaker 4: our transportation reality, our own column. Murphy is officially one

52
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 4: of the first people on Earth to try out a

53
00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 4: flying taxi. He agreed to get on a call with

54
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:26,920
Speaker 4: me and share what the experience was like.

55
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,919
Speaker 3: It's got like this oval shaped cabin and with a

56
00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,480
Speaker 3: lot of glass, which I imagine is to enhance or

57
00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 3: maximize the views that you can get once you're flying.

58
00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,280
Speaker 3: So it's a bit like a chopper helicopter, but the

59
00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,760
Speaker 3: scale is much much smaller. What's particularly unusual about it

60
00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,680
Speaker 3: is that it has eight arms, and each arm has

61
00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,000
Speaker 3: two sets of rotators. So when you look at it

62
00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:54,960
Speaker 3: from the ground and it's up in the air flying,

63
00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,680
Speaker 3: it really filled me with a sense of an eerie feeling,

64
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,840
Speaker 3: if you will, because it just looks like an insect

65
00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:06,440
Speaker 3: chopping its way through the sky. A fighter, yeah, exactly.

66
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 3: But the benefacturers rely or stress that it's these eight

67
00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,480
Speaker 3: arms and the sixteen rotators that are at the core

68
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,960
Speaker 3: of its safety, and it's sort of fail proof ability

69
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,400
Speaker 3: to fly and deal with any circumstance that comes its way.

70
00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,599
Speaker 4: I'd understand if this isn't what you pictured when we

71
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:28,920
Speaker 4: first said flying taxi. Angus Whitley, Bloomberg's global business reporter,

72
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:30,600
Speaker 4: had his own frames of reference.

73
00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:35,600
Speaker 5: My favorite flying cars are actually in the James Bond franchises,

74
00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:39,760
Speaker 5: just because they.

75
00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:41,880
Speaker 2: Are so simple and so ludicrous.

76
00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,440
Speaker 5: Or first one probably in The Man with the Golden

77
00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:48,200
Speaker 5: Gun in the seventies, and they just put wings on

78
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,240
Speaker 5: a normal car and it takes off.

79
00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:53,160
Speaker 2: It's as easy as that. It's as easy as that.

80
00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,440
Speaker 5: Yes, And I suppose the point when you look at

81
00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 5: these films is there be in a fiction of our imagination.

82
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:01,680
Speaker 2: For decades and decades, they've been.

83
00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,240
Speaker 5: Held up as this sort of goal and fantasy, and

84
00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,880
Speaker 5: if you think about it now, this reality has arrived,

85
00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,599
Speaker 5: and in many senses it's totally different from all the

86
00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,440
Speaker 5: sort of variance we've seen on the screen in the

87
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:15,480
Speaker 5: last few decades.

88
00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,880
Speaker 4: E Hang Holding's white hovering insect like contraption is one

89
00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:23,120
Speaker 4: example of this new kind of aircraft. It's meant for

90
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 4: short trips.

91
00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:25,360
Speaker 2: It's essentially a drone.

92
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,640
Speaker 5: It's electric, it's battery powered, It recharges in a couple

93
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,560
Speaker 5: of hours, and it buzzes around. It's a short distance

94
00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,720
Speaker 5: electric drone. Its range is pretty small. It's twenty miles.

95
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,360
Speaker 5: It can fly at less than one hundred miles an hour.

96
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,080
Speaker 5: But it's a short distance little thing. And it looks

97
00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,800
Speaker 5: like a little car cockpit if you like. There's no

98
00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,719
Speaker 5: seat for a pilot, but there's a flat screen in

99
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,599
Speaker 5: the front tells you all the critical information about the flight.

100
00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,599
Speaker 4: China's e Hang Holdings is just one of the companies

101
00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,120
Speaker 4: piloting what they hope could become the uber of the future.

102
00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,560
Speaker 4: There's something of a space strace underway among flying taxi makers,

103
00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:05,240
Speaker 4: and each model has its own design and fuel.

104
00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:11,640
Speaker 5: This is just a burgeoning, emerging industry that has more

105
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,680
Speaker 5: than two dozen really serious EV tour makers. And we

106
00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:20,080
Speaker 5: say ev TOLL that's it stands for electric vertical takeoff

107
00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:20,600
Speaker 5: and landing.

108
00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:25,039
Speaker 4: Are we seeing traditional airplane makers and car makers try

109
00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:27,520
Speaker 4: to invest in autonomous flying vehicles as well?

110
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,479
Speaker 5: Of course, you have the old aviation of like the

111
00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:35,000
Speaker 5: old Guard, and that's Boeing and Airbus. Boeing's fully owned

112
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:40,120
Speaker 5: business called whisk is making an electric aircraft that can

113
00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:43,680
Speaker 5: carry four passengers with no pilot, and they're planning to

114
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,800
Speaker 5: launch that before the decade is out, before twenty thirty.

115
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:52,080
Speaker 5: Airbos also has its own variant, Embra, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer.

116
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,240
Speaker 5: So you have this old guard and then you have

117
00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:58,279
Speaker 5: this legion of upstarts like Jobie and Archer and e Haang.

118
00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 5: They're really just charged as these special manufacturers. And then

119
00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:07,680
Speaker 5: you have this huge range of established names from the

120
00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:13,320
Speaker 5: car industry. So you have Hyundai, there's Stilantis, there's Toyota,

121
00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:17,840
Speaker 5: there's even Tencent, China's Tencent like technology makers, so that

122
00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:20,800
Speaker 5: they're drawing all this manufacturing know how, this technology know

123
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 5: how car industry expertise along with this huge big stock

124
00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,080
Speaker 5: of aviation expertise and likes of Boeing and Airbus, and

125
00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:32,040
Speaker 5: it's not clear who the winners are going to be.

126
00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,800
Speaker 4: Winning in this context means getting this very new technology right,

127
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,960
Speaker 4: but it also means getting it to market and turning

128
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,680
Speaker 4: flying taxis into a viable business.

129
00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:46,120
Speaker 5: We've had one hundred years of air travel evolve, We've

130
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,080
Speaker 5: had the jet era, and now we're into this revere

131
00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,120
Speaker 5: of urban air mobility or advanced air mobility. If you

132
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,760
Speaker 5: think about what's happened in the jet era, we boiled

133
00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,520
Speaker 5: down to essentially Giopoli, didn't we We had Boeing and

134
00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 5: Airbus and now almost I think we'll get filtering out

135
00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:04,520
Speaker 5: in the same way. We have dozens and dozens of

136
00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,520
Speaker 5: players vying to enter this space, and it's not clear

137
00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:12,400
Speaker 5: that many of them will survive. And the prize if

138
00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:16,080
Speaker 5: we can break through this frontier is by some estimates

139
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:19,760
Speaker 5: just enormous. And if you look at estimates by Morgan Stanley,

140
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,400
Speaker 5: for instance, this broad market for urban air mobility, which

141
00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:29,640
Speaker 5: includes electric passenger aircraft flying taxis, some of them without

142
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,480
Speaker 5: a pilot with it's going to be worth one trillion

143
00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,760
Speaker 5: dollars by twenty forty, So that's the estimated prize.

144
00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,280
Speaker 4: The prize is so huge in part because these pilotless

145
00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,520
Speaker 4: aircrafts promise to solve a major urban problem.

146
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,200
Speaker 5: There are some use cases if you like, that are

147
00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,120
Speaker 5: often cited. The first one is that flying taxis are

148
00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,360
Speaker 5: a sort of solution to chronic congestion that we're seeing

149
00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,920
Speaker 5: around the world in huge, big metropolis is from Tokyo

150
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000
Speaker 5: to New York to London to Southeastate.

151
00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:03,960
Speaker 4: Need to get to your board meeting downtown, but traffic

152
00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,120
Speaker 4: is at a standstill. Flying taxi want to go to

153
00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:11,080
Speaker 4: the football playoffs, but parking is a nightmare. Flying taxi

154
00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,240
Speaker 4: need to catch your flight, but the highways shut down

155
00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:16,440
Speaker 4: flying taxi.

156
00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:19,920
Speaker 5: Then there's the kind of intercity shuttle use case. And

157
00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,199
Speaker 5: then there's that sort of tourism case which we're seeing

158
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:27,040
Speaker 5: emerging that we see e Haang try and capitalize on

159
00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,280
Speaker 5: in China as a way of taking tourist rides, perhaps

160
00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,040
Speaker 5: supplanting the sort of helicopter trips, making them more affordable,

161
00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,400
Speaker 5: making them shorter, making them autonomous, And there are thousands

162
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:42,439
Speaker 5: of locations and Ehang's eyes that could support that user case.

163
00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:46,640
Speaker 5: These flying taxis are going to at some point going

164
00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:49,720
Speaker 5: to have to integrate in the way that airlines travel

165
00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,400
Speaker 5: around the world as well. So the idea is that

166
00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,040
Speaker 5: perhaps these flying taxis could connect to larger airports and

167
00:09:56,080 --> 00:09:59,720
Speaker 5: you might take a flying taxi from downtown Manhattan up

168
00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:03,079
Speaker 5: to JFK or LaGuardia and jump on a plane, a

169
00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:04,720
Speaker 5: conventional aircraft somewhere else.

170
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,000
Speaker 2: So that's why a lot.

171
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,440
Speaker 5: Of the orders for these electric taxis come from actual

172
00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:12,680
Speaker 5: airlines themselves.

173
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,840
Speaker 4: So flying taxis could be lean, green traffic avoiding machines.

174
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:21,040
Speaker 4: At least that's what these transportation companies hope. But there

175
00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:23,840
Speaker 4: are a few big things standing in the way of liftoff,

176
00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:29,800
Speaker 4: including economics, timing, and red tape. All that in a moment,

177
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:43,160
Speaker 4: flying taxis they're the hot new frontier in air transportation,

178
00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,520
Speaker 4: and they're supposedly just around the corner. Bloomberg reporter Angus

179
00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:48,400
Speaker 4: Whitley again.

180
00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:54,160
Speaker 5: We're really approaching the reality here. We're seeing EHang launching

181
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:58,160
Speaker 5: this year. We're going to see Jobian Archer launching next year.

182
00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,120
Speaker 4: For investors in the industry, this means payoff may finally

183
00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:06,800
Speaker 4: be near after years of waiting, Flying taxi companies started

184
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:10,079
Speaker 4: to gain traction during a heady moment for the global economy.

185
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,880
Speaker 4: At the time. There were a lot of investors with

186
00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,800
Speaker 4: a lot of money to throw around, and they were

187
00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:18,440
Speaker 4: willing to invest it with companies that required a lot

188
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:21,400
Speaker 4: of upfront cash, even if they didn't have the most

189
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:26,199
Speaker 4: airtight business plan. Interest rates were near zero, unborrowing was

190
00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,880
Speaker 4: very cheap. These were the perfect conditions to build a

191
00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:35,679
Speaker 4: business that was highly expensive and highly speculative, like flying taxis.

192
00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:39,400
Speaker 5: But the days of cheap money are over. We're seeing

193
00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:42,960
Speaker 5: funding not drying up, but decreasing at.

194
00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,360
Speaker 4: Least with interest rates back up. Investors are getting more

195
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,360
Speaker 4: risk averse, and that poses a challenge for flying taxi

196
00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,280
Speaker 4: companies who might have the technology down but will still

197
00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:58,600
Speaker 4: need to navigate logistical hurdles like aviation regulation, certification, liability, and.

198
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,599
Speaker 5: They're going to have to step up in terms of

199
00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:04,440
Speaker 5: producing these things. So they're going to have to find

200
00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:07,440
Speaker 5: a way of not just getting these things certified, but

201
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,560
Speaker 5: being produced at enough scale to make money.

202
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,720
Speaker 2: So that this is a scale game.

203
00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:16,319
Speaker 5: You need to have these things produced at a level

204
00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:18,520
Speaker 5: that we haven't really seen since the Second World War.

205
00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:20,480
Speaker 2: Archer, for instance, wants to.

206
00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:25,960
Speaker 5: Produce ultimately more aircraft a year than Boeing produced last year.

207
00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:30,120
Speaker 4: A scale game. Basically, flying taxi companies need to find

208
00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,160
Speaker 4: a way to make enough of them to launch a

209
00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,520
Speaker 4: viable business. The more taxis they make, the cheaper the

210
00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,080
Speaker 4: cost for each new taxi. The cheaper the cost of

211
00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,280
Speaker 4: each taxi, the less they need to charge customers per ride,

212
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:44,400
Speaker 4: and the less they charge per ride, the more people

213
00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:46,640
Speaker 4: who are likely to actually try this out.

214
00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:48,959
Speaker 5: It's certainly a moment, and also I think in the

215
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,680
Speaker 5: next few years we're going to see who is emerging

216
00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:54,400
Speaker 5: as winners and losers, and there will be people who

217
00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:56,920
Speaker 5: lose a lot of money along the line.

218
00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:00,280
Speaker 4: For any of these companies to have any chance of success,

219
00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,880
Speaker 4: Angus says, they'll need to win over regulators.

220
00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:05,960
Speaker 2: It is a global game.

221
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,400
Speaker 5: For instance, if you're if you're a flying taxi manufacturer

222
00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 5: and you have signed off from the FAA, then you'll

223
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,880
Speaker 5: be able to access other markets around the world as well,

224
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,520
Speaker 5: and jurisdictions like Australia they take them nod from the

225
00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:24,760
Speaker 5: FAA in terms of certification and approving flights. It's an

226
00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:28,800
Speaker 5: important step to being certified and that will open doors

227
00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,760
Speaker 5: into other markets and we'll see the likes of Jobie

228
00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,000
Speaker 5: an Archer and e Hang enter other markets as well,

229
00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:40,200
Speaker 5: for example the Middle East and Europe. So it's not

230
00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:41,439
Speaker 5: a single country game.

231
00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:44,840
Speaker 4: Getting those rubber stamps is not going to happen overnight,

232
00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:47,720
Speaker 4: and that's part of the reason why years of investment

233
00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,319
Speaker 4: haven't paid off just yet. It's worth pointing out though,

234
00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,000
Speaker 4: that some regulatory environments will be easier to navigate than others.

235
00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:58,320
Speaker 4: That's in part why Colums E. Hang Holding's test flight

236
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,360
Speaker 4: was possible and why the e Hang taxi business could

237
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,800
Speaker 4: take off in China sooner than competitors based elsewhere.

238
00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:10,200
Speaker 5: EHang already has a pilotless aircraft that can carry two

239
00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:14,200
Speaker 5: passengers certified by the regulator, so they're pushing ahead towards

240
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:18,720
Speaker 5: commercial launch by the end of this year, and they

241
00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,600
Speaker 5: would have bragging rights over potentially emerging as the first

242
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:28,960
Speaker 5: autonomous commercial flying taxi in the world. But it's interesting

243
00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:32,240
Speaker 5: how these things are being regulated. The China Civily Avisian

244
00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:36,880
Speaker 5: regulator has cleared that it's partly because Chinese policy has

245
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,200
Speaker 5: identified these kind of areas as a policy lever to

246
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:43,240
Speaker 5: develop what they call a sort of low altitude economy.

247
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,360
Speaker 2: Other regulators are taking a bit more time. I'm not

248
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:49,000
Speaker 2: suggesting that China's.

249
00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:53,280
Speaker 5: Regulators necessarily less onerous when it comes to certifying aircraft,

250
00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:56,000
Speaker 5: but it's fair to say that power is more centralized

251
00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,680
Speaker 5: in China, which allows sort of policy levers to be

252
00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,240
Speaker 5: pulled at all levels to achieve a goal.

253
00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:04,680
Speaker 2: So if you look at e Hang's.

254
00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:08,800
Speaker 5: Aircraft, it has a certification from the regulator to fly

255
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,400
Speaker 5: and to go into mass production. And once you get

256
00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:16,200
Speaker 5: those kind of badges. Then orders start coming in and

257
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 5: right on queue. We've had local tourism entities order e

258
00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:24,200
Speaker 5: hang aircraft in their hundreds.

259
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:30,360
Speaker 4: So realistically, how soon could I hail a flying taxi?

260
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:32,920
Speaker 5: I think this is the picture they would like you

261
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,280
Speaker 5: to see in your mind, walking out the door and

262
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:39,160
Speaker 5: hailing and flying taxi. In reality, that is some way off.

263
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:44,080
Speaker 5: I think that that is years away, but you could

264
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,040
Speaker 5: next year. You could potentially take a trip to your

265
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:52,240
Speaker 5: local vertaport as they call it, and take a flight

266
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,200
Speaker 5: to the airport, perhaps not the price of an uber,

267
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:58,040
Speaker 5: but you know, as a special treat.

268
00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:02,440
Speaker 4: Of course, one person's treat is another person's terror. And

269
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:04,720
Speaker 4: I wanted to know on which side of the spectrum

270
00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:09,440
Speaker 4: column had landed. After his two minute test ride, it.

271
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:11,400
Speaker 5: Feels very stable, very secure.

272
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:12,720
Speaker 3: I think we're going back down now.

273
00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:14,840
Speaker 2: Seems that we're making many sense.

274
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:22,200
Speaker 3: I actually did have another opportunity to take one, and

275
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:27,120
Speaker 3: that was they offered us three different slots, and I

276
00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:32,280
Speaker 3: felt that after the first one, I had basically enjoyed

277
00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:36,720
Speaker 3: the experience, had survived the experience, but I wasn't particularly

278
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:39,680
Speaker 3: keen or anxious to jump in and go up again.

279
00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:45,040
Speaker 4: To be honest, this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News.

280
00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,360
Speaker 4: I'm Sarah Holder. This episode was produced by Jessica Beck,

281
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:52,320
Speaker 4: Naomi and Adrianna Tapia. It was mixed by Rishi Bajako

282
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,920
Speaker 4: and fact checked by Eddie Dwan. It was edited by

283
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:58,560
Speaker 4: Stacy Vennick Smith and Rebecca Greenfield. Our senior producers are

284
00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:02,160
Speaker 4: Kim Gitttleson and Naomi sha who also edited this episode.

285
00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,720
Speaker 4: Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole Beemster Borer is

286
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:09,720
Speaker 4: our executive producer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts.

287
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,879
Speaker 4: If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe and

288
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,720
Speaker 4: review The Big Take wherever you listen to podcasts. It

289
00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,520
Speaker 4: helps people find the show. Thanks for listening.