Latest news with #UberBlack
Local Italy
a day ago
- Business
- Local Italy
Uber to launch helicopter taxis on Italy's Amalfi Coast this summer
Uber Copter services will operate every weekend from July 26th to August 23rd, taking passengers from the seaside town of Sorrento to the island of Capri and back, Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Sunday. Flights to Capri will depart at 9am every Saturday and Sunday, with return flights to Sorrento at 5pm, Uber said. The new service, which includes door-to-door transportation to and from the helipads, will be available for groups of up to six passengers, with round trips costing €250 per person. Customers will have to book at least 48 hours in advance via the Uber App, with bookings set to open on June 25th. Besides new helicopter rides, Uber will also offer new boat services for groups of up to 12 people between July 26th and August 24th. Uber Boat will take passengers from Sorrento's port to the picturesque cliffside town of Positano aboard stylish Gozzo 35 motorboats. All trips will be bookable via the Uber app, an Uber spokesperson told Il Corriere della Sera, which reported that the service would be provided free of charge this summer as part of a promotional offer trialled by Uber on the Seine last summer. No further details were available as of Monday regarding any conditions attached to the offer. An Uber Yacht experience introduced in Ibiza last year cost €1,600. The US multinational said the new services catered to a surge in demand for alternative mobility options on the Amalfi Coast – one of Italy's most popular holiday destinations thanks to its pastel-coloured fishing villages and famed beaches. In particular, the company cited the "record number of tourists" it anticipates will arrive this summer due to the recent opening of the Salerno Costa d'Amalfi Airport as a key reason for expanding into the region. 'Italy is fast becoming one of our most popular tourist destinations, with travellers turning to the Uber app to help make their holiday travel stress-free,' Anabel Diaz, vice president of Uber's EMEA Mobility, said. Thanks to sustained pressure from Italy's powerful taxi unions, the standard Uber ride-hailing service doesn't exist in Italy, while the luxury Uber Black service is available in a limited number of cities. However, following a 2022 agreement between Uber and Italy's largest taxi dispatcher, passengers in some parts of the country can now hail taxis using the Uber app.
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Meme stocks made him a fortune. Now he's betting on flying taxis.
After booking a nine-figure profit by riding the meme-stock craze for old-school bricks-and-mortar businesses, hedge-fund manager Jason Mudrick was looking for his next big bet. He was as surprised as anyone that he settled on flying taxis. Mudrick specializes in distressed companies, often established businesses that have fallen out of favor. But when late last year he became the biggest shareholder of a British aerospace startup and forced out its founder, he was making a long-shot play on a futuristic industry that for years has seemed just around the corner—yet still hasn't arrived. The company, Vertical Aerospace, is aiming to bring one of the world's first so-called 'electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft" to market by 2028. Its aircraft is akin to a battery-powered helicopter that is much quieter, safer and cheaper to operate than its conventional counterpart, while carrying up to six passengers and their suitcases. Called the VX4, it has a range of about 100 miles, able to get a New Yorker to the Hamptons in about 40 minutes. Vertical says the cost-per-mile will rival that of an Uber Black, the ride-hailing app's premier service. Mudrick is aware that, to many, the idea still seems far-fetched. 'We have aircraft, like, they're flying, this industry has sort of become real," he said in an interview. 'I grew up watching the Jetsons but I never thought, 'Hey, someday I'm gonna be involved in creating one of those little craft.'" Aerospace executives have spent years pitching a world where flying taxis are crisscrossing the skies above major cities, ferrying passengers between airports and city centers, and used as ambulances to transport patients and organs. Some envision entirely new commuter towns where residents begin each workday with a short flight to the office. That dream is inching closer. In April, San Jose, Calif.-based Archer Aviation shared flight paths for New York, and last August did the same for Los Angeles. Beta Technologies, out of Burlington, Vt., has installed about 50 charging stations across 22 states and recently flew passengers on an initial version of its aircraft. And over in Dubai, construction has started on the United Arab Emirates' first 'vertiport" ahead of plans for Joby Aviation to begin flying there later this year. Even with the collapse of three of its biggest European competitors over the past year, Vertical remains, in many ways, the underdog. Its primary three U.S. rivals boast bigger budgets and bigger investors. Vertical raised some $90 million in January, enough to help tide it over while it continues with fresh fundraising and the search for a major industrial partner this year. By comparison, Amazon-funded Beta, Toyota– and Delta Air Lines-backed Joby, and Archer—which has joined with Stellantis and United Airlines—have raised some $1.4 billion combined over the past 12 months. All three say they also expect to begin flying passengers in the U.S. as soon as in the next year or two if they can get the blessing from the Federal Aviation Administration. Mudrick says his rivals are being too optimistic, but even so, acknowledges that his aircraft, which has to meet higher European safety standards, will likely come a bit later with deliveries starting in 2028. It isn't clear whether cities and the general public will embrace a new aircraft humming around their homes and offices, adding to already crowded skies, says Adam Cohen, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley. Among other things, they will add demands to already-stretched air-traffic controllers. Cohen says he expects they will be operational on a 'very small scale" by the end of the decade, with emergency services as one likely way they could be effectively deployed. Still, Mudrick believes the upside justifies the financial risk. 'This is one of those bets that you make, and if it works, it's one you'll talk about for the next 20 years," he said. Originally from Washington, D.C., Mudrick is a Harvard Law School graduate and a former investment banker. He started his eponymous hedge fund in 2009 with $5 million at only 34 years old, and soon after made Business Insider's 'Sexiest Hedge Fund Managers Alive" list. (Mudrick says the article was 'a long time ago.") With a focus on companies that are typically unsexy, his firm's managed funds had soared to $3.2 billion by the end of March. Mudrick's Vertical adventure started in summer 2021. The executive was wrapping up a meeting at his offices on New York's Madison Avenue when Vertical's chairman, Dómhnal Slattery, quietly pulled him aside. ''I'm working on something interesting, I think you should take a look,'" Mudrick recalled being told. Vertical was months away from listing via a special-purpose acquisition company at a $2.2 billion valuation, but needed a cash injection to get there. Mudrick, meanwhile, had only just emerged from his bets on the theater chain AMC and videogame retailer GameStop, which were among the most high-profile meme stocks at the time. The bets netted him roughly $250 million in profits and led to his firm's best month ever, but also ended up evoking the ire of online traders. (He woke up one day to find his firm's Wikipedia page defaced with profanity and insults). He was eager to get Mudrick Capital back to its core strategy: providing debt financing to distressed companies. So he shut Slattery down: 'Not interested." Weeks later, Vertical's chairman tried again, enticing Mudrick with a different offer: forget an equity injection, how did he feel about debt? It worked. Mudrick and his team set about researching the much-hyped industry and found that the proposition was surprisingly simple. Megacities across the globe are plagued with congestion that is only set to worsen. Streets lined with old buildings can't be widened and tunneling is prohibitively expensive. That left one option: 'You've got to go up," Mudrick said. Vertical itself was born out of a traffic jam. A serial entrepreneur, Stephen Fitzpatrick was the new owner of a small Formula One team and had spent four hours in a car trying to make it to the 2015 São Paulo Grand Prix on time. When he got there, he discovered that other team executives had chartered expensive helicopter rides. It gave him an idea. Fitzpatrick created Vertical the next year, redeploying engineers from his F1 team to design a flying taxi. He based it out of Bristol in southwest England, near the area where Britain's first military helicopters were built after World War II. The company for years burned through cash and a collapse in its post-SPAC listing share price dragged its total value to a meager $82 million. After an acrimonious and public battle, Mudrick forced Fitzpatrick out, and in December converted $130 million of his debt to equity and took control of the company. 'Vertical wouldn't be here if he hadn't come up with the idea," Mudrick said of Fitzpatrick. 'But at the end of the day, what the company needs now are not skills that he possesses." Fitzpatrick, who still holds a minority stake, declined to comment. The company now has enough money to make it through the end of this year, but expects to run more investment rounds to get it through the roughly $1 billion certification process it has to complete before it can start delivering the craft, Chief Executive Stuart Simpson said in a separate interview. Vertical's business strategy is simple: It just wants to sell its aircraft like an Airbus or Boeing. Those sales then lock customers into lucrative maintenance contracts which includes the supply of replacement batteries roughly every year. That is different from some other competitors such as Joby, whose strategy is to also operate its own aircraft and establish itself as an Uber of the skies. Vertical has spent most of this year courting potential partners and pitching the business at investor conferences as its aircraft shifts to its final major test phase. It is a role reversal for Mudrick, who is more used to companies coming to him hat in hand and asking for money. 'What we need now is capital, capital and capital," he said.
Daily Maverick
03-06-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Maverick
After the Bell: Uber, motorbikes and disruption on the road to transport democratisation
There was virtually no change for 50 years, then suddenly a whole revolution in transport. And it hasn't ended yet; there will be more disruption to come. I am sure that I am not alone in finding that one of the biggest frustrations of driving – along with potholes, people who drive on the wrong side of the road, minibus taxis and traffic in general – is the huge rise in the number of people driving motorbikes. I don't have anything against them. They're providing an important service (including to my home), they're moving the economy and, most importantly, they're getting an income for their families. But what really irritates me is that they're forced to drive while looking at their phones. It means that you are behind them and, firstly, scared for them because they're not paying attention and, secondly, hugely irritated because they're driving so slowly as a result. I was reminded of this when I read a report that Uber is now offering what was always going to be the end point of their disruptions in how we get around. Instead of spending money and wasting space in a car, now, in some places, you can get a ride on the back of a motorbike. You can imagine the advantage of this: it's hugely cheap and so many journeys really involve one customer. It also increases your options. You can spend a fortune and arrive at an event in splendid isolation in an Uber Black, rush to that important meeting in a Comfort, just go to work in a Go, or, if you're strapped for cash (and who isn't!), use their motorbike service. It makes so much sense. So often you see someone using the Bolt service, being driven around in a little orange Qute that isn't even a car. Technically, and legally, it's a quadricycle. You probably already know the difference between the two; it's all about size. But you're still wasting all of that space. And if I was given the choice of a ride on the back of a bike, or a trip in one of those, I'd probably take the bike (so long as it's not the middle of the Gauteng winter). What I find really fascinating about this is that, first, it's following trends elsewhere. When I went to Rwanda in 2017, there were motorbikes carrying passengers everywhere. And the service obviously worked; it was quick and cheap. I'm sure the same thing happens in many other countries. But the second thing is how much disruption has occurred in our transport market in just the past 11 years or so. And how much of that has to do with Uber. Before Uber came to South Africa, the car-taxi industry hadn't really changed in about 50 years. Maybe even longer. Taxis were something you saw outside airports and train stations. You knew nothing about the drive and very little about the car. When Uber came, that way of life was not going to last. And those drivers knew it! They used violence to try to force Uber drivers out. Even quite recently, when I used the Gautrain to Pretoria, Uber drivers refused to come to the station because of the taxi men hanging around there. Last week at Cape Town International Airport, I saw people hanging around shouting 'taxi'. Compared with Uber, where you know so much about the driver, and know the car will be reliable, who would use these taxis? But if no one uses them, why are they still hanging around there? The real point though is how quickly this disruption has happened. Virtually no change for 50 years, then suddenly a whole revolution in transport. And it hasn't ended yet; there will be more disruption to come. It's a really good example of how a whole series of technologies around our phones, GPS, credit card payments and many other things have come together to make a real change in the way in which we move around. But it also reminds us of how new technologies work. They start as something cool and fun for the rich, and often end up as a necessity for the middle classes, sometimes even for those who have very little. Because of the nature of innovation involving information (think X, Facebook, and video and music streaming), often these services are available in a very democratic way when they start. In the past, most new innovations were only for the rich and stayed like that for a long time. No longer. Now you can make a lot more money providing services to everyone. Of course, there are always people who lose out. I fear there will be some attacks on people who drive these bikes. It seems to me almost inevitable that this will happen. I also hope and pray that when these drivers are carrying someone behind them, they find a way to both watch the map on the phone and keep their full attention on the road ahead. DM
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Better Growth Stock: Archer Aviation vs. Rocket Lab USA
Archer Aviation plans to deliver a lot more aircraft. Rocket Lab plans to launch more rockets. One of these companies has a clearer vision for the future. 10 stocks we like better than Archer Aviation › Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) and Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB) are both highly speculative aerospace stocks. Archer is a developer of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, while Rocket Lab sells reusable orbital rockets. But over the past 12 months, Archer's stock soared more than 220% as Rocket Lab's stock surged over 500%. Let's see if either of these hot stocks is worth buying as a growth play today. Archer's flagship Midnight eVTOL aircraft can carry one pilot and four passengers. It can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge with a maximum speed of 150 miles per hour. It promotes the Midnight as a cheaper, greener, and easier-to-land alternative to helicopters, and it's already working with major airlines, automakers, and the U.S. Air Force to provide air taxi services. The company also plans to launch its own air taxi service, which it claims will cost roughly the same as Uber Technologies' premium UberBlack service within the next two years. Archer's backlog already includes hundreds of orders, and it claims it can increase its annual production to 10 aircraft in 2025, 48 aircraft in 2026, 252 aircraft in 2027, and 650 aircraft in 2028. It believes it can eventually manufacture up to 2,000 aircraft annually as it scales up its business. That growth trajectory would be incredible, but Archer has only delivered a single Midnight aircraft to the U.S. Air Force so far. That delivery didn't generate any revenue because it was a test aircraft, but Archer expects to deliver its first "revenue-generating" aircraft to Abu Dhabi Aviation for its new air taxi service by the end of this year. Archer also partnered with Palantir Technologies, a leading provider of analytics and AI services for the U.S. government, this March to accelerate the production of its aircraft and strengthen its aviation systems. Analysts expect Archer's revenue to rise from nothing in 2024 to $12.7 million in 2025, $143.9 million in 2026, and $437.1 million in 2027. But with a market capitalization of $5.8 billion, it already trades at 13 times its projected sales for 2027 -- so a lot of growth is already baked into its high-flying shares. The company also won't come close to breaking even anytime soon. But if you expect Archer's eVTOL aircraft to replace helicopters over the next decade, it might just deserve that higher valuation. Rocket Lab's flagship reusable rocket, the Electron, is used to carry small payloads of up to 300 kilograms into space. It's been successfully launched 64 times, was used to deploy 225 satellites, and operates from three dedicated launch pads. Its next rocket, the Neutron, will carry a maximum capacity of 15,000 kilograms when it launches in the second half of this year. The company already serves large customers like NASA, the U.S. Space Force, the Swedish National Space Agency, Capella Space, and BlackSky Technology. It launched six rockets in 2021, nine in 2022, 10 in 2023, and 16 last year. From 2021 to 2024, Rocket Lab's annual revenue rose more than sevenfold from $62 million to $436 million as its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin improved from negative 70% to negative 22%. Over the past year, it shipped two research satellites for NASA and gained an additional contract for the agency's next Mars mission. It also agreed to deploy a constellation of 25 satellites for Kinéis, a global Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity provider, sealed a multiyear Electron launch contract with Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), and secured new U.S. defense contracts. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Rocket Lab's annual revenue to nearly triple from $436 million to $1.18 billion. They also expect its adjusted EBITDA to turn positive in 2026 and for it to turn fully profitable by 2027. That rosy outlook suggests it will keep thriving in the shadow of its bigger competitor, SpaceX, which launched a record 138 Falcon rockets in 2024. But with a market cap of $11.7 billion, it also isn't a bargain at nearly 10 times its projected sales for 2027. Archer Aviation could have plenty of upside potential if the nascent eVTOL market takes off, but it hasn't proven that its business model is sustainable yet. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab USA has significantly ramped up its launches over the past few years, it's developing new rockets, and its margins are steadily improving as economies of scale kick in. So, if I had to pick one of these speculative stocks over the other, I'd stick with Rocket Lab because it seems better prepared to expand its fledgling business. Before you buy stock in Archer Aviation, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Archer Aviation wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $639,271!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,688!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 957% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 167% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Rocket Lab USA. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Better Growth Stock: Archer Aviation vs. Rocket Lab USA was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Miami Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Uber CEO reveals a crucial key to business success
While both the retail and automotive sectors are both grappling with the chaos that's ensured ever since President Donald Trump announced his tariffs plan on April 2, a few select businesses have been lucky enough to be "tariff-proof." One such retailer is TJX Companies, which along with its brands TJ Maxx, Marshall's, and HomeGoods, has been rallying lately despite the trade war. That's because the discount chains buy secondhand goods from other retailers, meaning they do not have to import their products from overseas. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Another company that doesn't need to worry is beverage giant Coca-Cola. Thanks to steps the company has taken to hedge against rising aluminum costs, Coca-Cola will not feel the sting the way hundreds of thousands of other businesses will. Certain lucky business models are not affected by tariffs at all. One of those is Uber (UBER) , which relies on its users to supply their own vehicles in order to use the service. Related: Uber shares new budget-friendly pricing model When Uber reported its Q4 earnings on May 7, they looked terrific: its Q1 revenue soared a remarkable 14% year over year at $11.5 billion, with a revenue forecast to grow 12% over the next three years. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's recent interview with The Verge addressed the rideshare company's future plans, including a new service that sounds a lot like a bus and which Khosrowshahi calls "complementary to public transit." But the CEO also shed some light on a key part of his success strategy with his company, and his advice is well worth checking out. Image source: Burkardt/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images Early in the interview, The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel asked Khosrowshahi an interesting question: whether he "dogfoods" his own products. Dogfooding is a practice where businesses use their own products in real-world settings. When asked if he uses Uber services, including UberX and Uber Black, Khosrowshahi had some interesting insight to share. "Actually, one of the really important moves I made was starting to deliver," Khosrowshahi revealed. "Most Uber employees use Uber as consumers, but not as many use Uber as earners, as drivers, or as couriers. Early on when I joined, we were building more for the rider or the eater than the earner." Related: Uber takes aim at Tesla with its newest plan Khosrowshahi went on to say that during Covid, he felt he was "going crazy at home." The CEO's solution? To get on his e-bike and start delivering food. "Then, I got a Tesla and I started driving folks around," Khosrowshahi said. "I really do think that it's important to dogfood. You can't do it every single day, because you have a day job. But for one, you learn about your product. Just as importantly, you're setting an example for your employees." Khosrowshahi also added that Uber driving is "a lot harder than it looks." "When I first started driving, I was so nervous," he said. "I didn't want to screw up. I didn't want to take the wrong route. It's actually a lot more challenging than you think it is." The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
