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| Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-seon, right, shakes hands with Vertical Aerospace CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick after signing a partnership for the UAM service business at Kakao Mobility headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, May 17. Courtesy of Kakao Mobility |
By Kim Jae-heun
Kakao Mobility has signed an agreement with Vertical Aerospace (Vertical), a British aircraft manufacturer, to jointly provide commercial urban air mobility (UAM) services in Korea and other countries, company officials said Monday.
The company said the partnership was agreed based on the two parties' consensus concerning the need to build a global ecosystem for UAM services in the process of collaboration for the consortium to participate in the K-UAM Grand Challenge.
The two firms have formed a consortium called UAM Future Team with other local firms including LG Uplus and GS Engineering & Construction to participate in the public-private joint demonstration project for the air taxi service, which is being promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
"We plan to successfully complete the K-UAM Grand Challenge through a partnership with Vertical, which has high technology competitiveness, and to closely cooperate for future commercialization," Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-seon said during a partnership ceremony at Kakao Mobility's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, May 17.
"The company will develop an industry standard model for the UAM service based on its know-how in operating MaaS platform and expand it to the global market."
First, the two companies will find a joint research group to establish an implementation strategy for UAM's commercialization, according to Korea's UAM policy. They will also start joint research so as to verify the business' feasibility, such as analyzing the size of the potential domestic market and deciding the appropriate size of an urban air mobility vehicle to be introduced.
In order to demonstrate UAM service here and participate in related pilot projects in the future, Kakao Mobility will purchase the Vertical's UAM aircraft known as VX4 and develop safe technology.
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