NASA team up with Uber to get flying taxis off the ground

Uber envisions a world in which flying Uber Air would be as cheap as driving in your vehicle – about 44 cents per mile.

At this year’s summit, Uber unveiled yet another flying vehicle concept, this one being a four-passenger vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) fixed-wing aircraft, with vertical rotors fixed to those wings, giving an overall design that’s not dissimilar to the quadcopters that have become popular in recent years.

Uber is ready to add a third city to its flying taxi pilot program.

Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer said the new agreement would combine Uber’s “massive-scale engineering expertise with NASA’s decades of subject matter experience”.

Uber earlier claimed that the first working model of an autonomous passenger carrying aircraft would be presented in Dubai as early as 2020 during Dubai’s World Expo. But questions remain about how they will guarantee safety. The E-OneMoli team will work closely with Uber’s battery pack lead by Celina Mikolajczak.

NASA says this agreement represents the first to primarily hone in on urban air mobility operations.

Cities interested in taking part can apply online.

But details of the project were overshadowed, as a report revealed that one of Uber’s self-driving test vehicle which killed a woman crossing the street had detected her but decided not to react immediately. “We’re not shutting it down”. Uber has listed a series of “considerations” that will help the governments decide if they should consider participating in the contest.

“For me the aha moment came when I started understanding that Uber isn’t just about cars”, Khosrowshahi said. The company is considering changing that in coming months, though.

He said it’s “game over” if the company can’t provide a workplace where female employees feel safe. Stay updated with further of Uber’s tech innovations by following us. “But we don’t intend to”.

As in the case of the Elevate collaboration, NASA and Uber’s main concern for the UAM project is that the small aircraft is safely incorporated into busy air traffic.

Fort Worth’s Bell Helicopter will build the eVTOLs, according to The Dallas Morning News. Uber has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA for experimenting air mobility in the city.

Now, Uber are launching into a plan to make this concept reality within two to five years, reported CNBC.