Uber is advertising in Latin America with drones that hover over cars stuck in traffic jams. The ads are in keeping with the ride-sharing industry’s long-term goal of making cars feel like a luxury as opposed to a mandatory personal item.
“The city for you, not 5.5 million cars,” one of them reads as the drone flies just out of reach. Another says: “Driving by yourself" This is why you can never see the volcanoes,” chastising people for not carpooling or taking public transportation.

Uber is using drones to advertise in Mexico as the startup plans to double its presence in Latin America by 2018 https://t.co/64czhkHkMH pic.twitter.com/hMX3DXHHMn
? Bloomberg Technology (@technology) October 13, 2016
The unconventional tactic, which calls to mind the blimps of Blade Runner offering a new life in the Off-World Colonies, is tucked away in a Bloomberg profile of the ride-sharing company’s Latin American business. It turns out Mexico City is Uber’s busiest city, thus warranting special consideration from the company’s advertising wing. It’s unclear if Uber, a company with a reputation for pushing back against local governments, needed approval for the unconventional advertising. Mexico is known, the blog Fusion comments, for its “lack of strict aerospace regulations and its growing drone industry.

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