Uber and NASA to build flying cars 

NASA space program and Uber taxi-service team up to talk about creating a flying taxi program within the next five years.  

At an Elevate summit meeting in Los Angeles on May 8th, Uber, the U.S. army, and NASA discussed plans for flying taxis, to be titled UberAir.  

They plan to use their one-million-dollar alliance to build quiet propeller technology for passengers to travel by serenely and efficiently. These trips plan to travel at 150 miles per hour at 2,000 feet high, and they would likely land vertically like a helicopter. 

The capacity will be four passengers and a pilot; however, Uber is confident that they can be piloted autonomously within a few years. It will be specific to urban areas and airports, as “skyports” on the top of buildings will be utilized to land the aircraft.  

Although this system seems revolutionary, many people are worried that the taxi service will not be made affordable to them. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reassures them by claiming it will be made “affordable for normal people”.  

Therefore, UberAir will likely become a legitimate transportation system by 2023, as Uber’s demonstrative runs begin in 2020. So far, Uber is utilizing Dallas and Los Angeles as “launch cities”, however they are still searching for an international city according to their website. These “launch cities” are meant to be culturally diverse locations for the initial Uber air taxis to travel in. Uber plans to fly these cars around a city or to an airport, as these places are the only locations that have “launch cities”. It would function like the normal Uber taxi service, however, the car would be on a skyport, so the person seeking the Uber would have to travel to the closest port.  

Uber has expressed its increasing excitement for this project and the immense amount of possibilities UberAir could hold. Their main goals for this mission is for more purified air, less traffic congestion, and quicker commutes for people’s everyday travels.