Ride-sharing startup Uber Technologies Inc. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have signed an agreement to develop new traffic concepts that will enable a network of flying cars to safely traverse U.S. cities.
Uber plans to roll out an on-demand vertical take-off and landing network in Dallas and Dubai by 2020. On Wednesday, Uber added Los Angeles to those two cities in its initiative called “Uber Elevate.”
“This collaboration makes a ton of sense in order to bring this to market as fast as possible.”
Jeff Holden
The effort faces numerous regulatory hurdles — including Federal Aviation Administration approval — so that the flying cars can co-exist with drones, airplanes, and helicopters, Bloomberg reported.
The agreement with NASA is aimed at developing traffic concepts that will allow for safe and efficient operations of robotic flight systems, Bloomberg reported.
Dubbed “uberAir,” the network would allow customers to push a button and get high-speed flight in and around the cities, Uber said.
Uber also is working with infrastructure, real estate, and aircraft partners to operate fixed routes between “Skyports,” the hubs for flying cars in each city.
“This collaboration makes a ton of sense in order to bring this to market as fast as possible,” Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden told Bloomberg Television in an interview.
He said that NASA’s expertise in unmanned aerial systems traffic management can help come up with solutions for managing an “unprecedented” number of flying aircrafts in cities.
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DFW Will Be Test Site for Uber’s Flying Car Initiative
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