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Uber Hires a Nasa Veteran Who Thinks We'll Start Seeing Flying Cars In Next Three Years (bloomberg.com)
Uber is getting serious about its intentions of building a flying car. Uber's plan involves airborne taxis that will travel 50 to 100 miles between "vertiports" that connect passengers between their homes and offices, according to a report on Bloomberg. Now it is hiring the right leader for this project. From the report: In 2010, an advanced aircraft engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center named Mark Moore published a white paper outlining the feasibility of electric aircrafts that could take off and land like helicopters but were smaller and quieter. The vehicles would be capable of providing a speedy alternative to the dreary morning commute. Moore's research into so-called VTOL -- short for vertical takeoff and landing, or more colloquially, flying cars -- inspired at least one billionaire technologist. After reading the white paper, Google co-founder Larry Page secretly started and financed two Silicon Valley startups, Zee Aero and Kitty Hawk, to develop the technology. Now Moore is leaving the confines of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he has spent the last 30 years, to join one of Google's rivals: Uber Technologies Inc. Moore is taking on a new role as director of engineering for aviation at the ride-hailing company, working on a flying car initiative known as Uber Elevate. "I can't think of another company in a stronger position to be the leader for this new ecosystem and make the urban electric VTOL market real," he says.
Its not a flying car if it doesn't drive on the streets. Otherwise we'd be calling helicopters flying cars.. So no, VTOL does not mean flying car.
There are a lot of metro areas I've lived in that have great roads or transit to get from one area of a city to another - but make travel from different zones across the city a nightmare. If you could put in a number of aerial transit lines like this you could open up jobs and housing in much different areas of the city than is currently practical.
Depending on where you placed these zones you could make who new areas job centers that could never have been before.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
yea and there still classed as light aircraft and fall under the same regulations
As in hallucinations? This guy is senile.
They can build something that can fly itself and take you from point A to point B.
What they can't do and what will take years and years is the infrastructure. Remember the Jetsons? Ya...they were following "roads".
The rules and regulations to manage millions of aircraft flying pilotlessly from point A to point B hasn't even been dreamed of yet, never mind rationally though out.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I don't agree that a flying car has to also drive on the ground. I think the general idea of a flying car is something that is affordable by more families and as easy to use as a car. A helicopter is omitted from that because it is expensive, requires the knowledge of an airline pilot, and can obviously not be driven by the average person. I think more like the cars in the Jetsons.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
and told you it was chocolate milk, would you believe them? 10 out of 10 tech reporters answered a resounding yes.
Rolling on a surface is pretty energy efficient - the power requirements for flying are much, much higher.
Safety & FAA regulatory issues aside, this is always going to cost a LOT more than ground transportation- for fuel costs alone.
This may end up being the rich man's tool when a limo is too slow, but a charter aircraft overkill.
Most stupid ape on the roads can barely even drive on land, forget the flying in the air.
It will need to be 100% autonomous. Considering we don,t have commercially available self driving cars yet, the flying ones ain't gonna come anytime soon. Not to mention, every "flying cars" we've seen so far are NOISY as hell. Now multiply that times a couple thousands flying above you. It will be deafening.
I dont think this happening within 3 years. For example, take a look at how long Terrafugia has been at it. It has taken them *years* to get to the point where they've been allowed by the FAA to self-certify their "flying cars" for weight and stall speed limits. They're finally allowed to self-certify as a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA). So, now they expect to have a new prototype by 2018, and customer delivery by 2024! As for flying it, I'm guessing Uber is planning on self-flying craft (there's already a ton of automation for flying that has been in place for a long time). I'd love to see it happen, but I'm not counting on it within 3 years.
“I can’t think of another company in a stronger position to be the leader for this new ecosystem and make the urban electric VTOL market real,” he says.
That's because of Uber's strong engineering track record, civic integration, and long history of co-operation with governmental agencies.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Strictly speaking, that's correct. But pragmatically, the next step after VTOL is STOL (short take off and landing) which means you need a runway of sorts to get the thing into -- and more important -- out of, the air. Space is kind of at a premium in urban areas. Also, the vehicle probably needs to be drivable for short distances to get into and out of parking garages, tree covered areas, etc. Probably doesn't have to drive at expressway speeds or handle like a sports car. But it probably needs wheels, lights, turn indicators and a "reverse gear".
So the likelihood is that your family flying car if it ever comes about will feature VTOL and be "car-like" in many ways is pretty high.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
No need for millions of them. This is clearly aimed at the 1% being taxied from the penthouse of one shining building to another while the plebs sit in traffic-snarled, crumbling infrastructure. Think Metropolis, not Jetsons.
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People cannot handle flying cars.
Yes, I totally agree... that's why you have instead what is described IN THE SUMMARY THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE READ - essentially a small bus (they say taxi) that flies itself through the air between hubs and from there you take an uber (or drive home in your own car).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Helicopters can fly anywhere because they cost millions of dollars, and only a tiny minority of companies and billionaires own them. If anyone suggested several hundred million should take to the sky on a daily basis, we would have to change the regulations concerning them.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
The target parking lot has plenty of space to land in.
Then if it does not need car capabilities and does not have them, it is not a "flying car". If I have a small boat that cannot drive along roads, I do not call it a "floating car" just because it is as "affordable by more families" as the GP thinks. I have a few of affordable things around me, so if we should now call anything we can afford a "something car" then I have a "shed car", a "television car", a "microwave car", a "lawnmower car", a "knife-and-fork car", and a "can of beer car", among other things.