Uber has hired Mark Moore, a NASA aircraft engineer to help design a fleet of commercial flying car for on-demand aviation. Uber hopes that the flying car, called Uber Elevate, will be ready by 2021, although Mr Moore says it could be sooner.
The cars will take off and land vertically and travel 100 miles (160 km) on a single charge, at 150 mph (240km/h) max. They will have fixed wings with tilt prop-rotors, which will make them 15 decibels quieter than the traditional helicopters. The cars, uber says, will have plenty of room for a pilot and multiple passengers.
Uber plans to use pre-existing urban heliports and skyscrapers as launch and landing pads.
Moore, who has been working at NASA for the last 30 years, is now moving to Uber as their Director of Engineering for Aviation, to work on the flying car.
Speaking to Bloomberg, he said: '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 is confident that there will be several well-engineered flying cars in 'one to three years.'
Uber released its plan for the Uber Elevate in October last year, which could see a two hour and 12 minutes’ car ride journey take 15 minutes in the flying car.
'On-demand aviation has the potential to radically improve urban mobility, giving people back time lost in their daily commutes,' a white paper reveals.
Nikhil Goel, Uber’s head of product for advanced programs, in an emailed statement said “Uber continues to see its role as an accelerant-catalyst to the entire ecosystem, and we are excited to have Mark joining us to work with manufacturers and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our whitepaper.”