While most car companies are investing research efforts into electric and autonomous vehicles, Uber – the highly popular ride-sharing service – is attempting to stick out in the crowd of auto giants by developing a flying car.
According to reports from Bloomberg, the company just took that goal one step further by hiring NASA veteran Mark Moore to work on company’s flying car project.
In less than a decade, Uber has changed the way many individuals think about transportation. Now, the company is looking to do that again. In October 2016, Uber announced plans for the “Elevate” network, which is set to function as a fleet of on-demand, electric aircrafts that take off and land vertically. Uber looks to implement Elevate within a decade.
Much like electric vehicles, the idea of the flying car is not new. In 1926, the concept even landed the cover of Popular Science. Still, there has never been a feasible technology to make this goal an actuality.
That’s where Moore steps in for Uber.
What many think of as flying cars are technically referred to as “vertical takeoff and landing” (or VETOL) aircrafts. Those working on VETOL aircraft technology have faced many barriers in development, including proper infrastructure, battery life, and air-traffic restricts.
Moore hopes to smooth out many of these hurdles for Uber, putting his work as chief technologies for on-demand mobility at NASA to good use.
