Uber Elevate appears not to be following the “move fast and break things” mantra that was coined by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and has since been adopted as a badge of honor by high-tech start-ups in a hurry to turn the world upside down. In a presentation last week to the U.S. Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA), John Illson, who is head of aviation safety with the ride-hailing group, explained how he’s leading efforts to ensure that safety is paramount as the company prepares to launch operations in 2023.
“Failing fast is not an option for us,” he said. “New technology companies look at failure as learning experiences but we can’t do that in aviation because companies that can’t develop a safety case won’t be successful and they will lack public buy-in.”
At least initially, Uber does not intend to be an aircraft operator itself and will instead provide the application and supporting infrastructure to support operating companies providing rides. Nonetheless, the group seems to be taking a direct role in ensuring the integrity of operations and so Illson’s team is developing a safety management system as a foundation for the network.
As part of that effort, it recently signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Aviation’s Digital Group to develop a flight data monitoring program to support operators of the eVTOL aircraft to be used for the planned Uber Air service. This will form part of Uber’s SMS that operators will be able to implement on a voluntary basis and which will be based on FAA’s Flight Operations Quality Assurance model.
For almost six years, Illson was with the International Civil Aviation Organization as chief of its Operational Safety Air Navigation Bureau. He has also served as safety managing director for the Airlines for America trade association and, most recently, as an executive vice president with aviation certification specialist Professional Resources in System Management. All of this was after he spent 26 years as an airline captain with US Airways (with 18,000 flight hours) and as assistant director of aviation safety with the International Air Transport Association.
“Many of the people I work with [at Uber] don't have any aviation operational experience and my role in our technical and safety work is to provide the context for how the industry has done things in the past and how we need to do things now,” he told the ATCA audience.
Understandably, the controllers were eager to find out how Uber sees its new concept for urban air mobility flights working in densely populated areas. He explained that, initially, flights will be made at low altitudes on sectors of no more than 60 miles and under visual flight rules (VFR). He said the Uber team is still working to define optimum cruise altitudes and other flight parameters.
“We’re taking a crawl-walk-run approach, with single-pilot VFR operations to start, and then moving to IFR [instrument flight rules] as the aircraft and crews become certified to do so,” he said. “Fully autonomous operations are the long-term goal and this will play a big role in how we scale [up] this type of service.”
Illson told the ATCA audience that Uber is involved in developing “dedicated skylanes” to be used not only for its passenger-carrying eVTOL aircraft but for unmanned vehicles, too. “We’re trying to find a way to collaboratively use this airspace and [to do so] we’re carefully considering how we manage all the various contingencies, such as system failures and unexpected events that require aircraft to behave differently,” he explained.
The decision to initially limit the service to VFR conditions partly explains the choice of Dallas and Los Angeles as early-adopter cities, with trial operations to start “in the 2023 to 2024 timeframe.” Illson estimated that it might take another three years before Uber might feel able to expand service to more challenging winter climates in northern cities such as Boston. Uber is working on a plan to manage weather risk by using “micro weather stations” to provide real-time data to pilots.
Uber expects that its partner operators will fly with commercially rated pilots, and some may have full air transport pilot licenses. “What we’re discussing is similar to airline or charter operator standards,” said Illson. “These will generally be aircraft with four passengers and a pilot who will be operating in dense areas and complex airspace.”
Illson said that the company is still addressing the type of pilot who will be needed and how they might need to be trained. He indicated that, initially, Uber Air operators will likely recruit flight crew from legacy operators and transition to being able to recruit ab initio pilots.
In his time so far with Uber, Illson said, he’s seen cultural change among colleagues who are new to aviation. “Now I find that instead of me doing the advocating [for safety], it’s colleagues who are doing it, and safety is woven into everything we’re doing,” he concluded.
