The Boeing Osprey, one of the few VTOL aircraft in service today is a tad too big for cities, so Uber is looking for smaller planes that could fit inside city airspace. Image INQUIRER.net
Just as Uber announced a few weeks ago that self-driving Uber cars would be hitting the streets in Pittsburgh, USA, the company is already looking to the future with flying vehicles that take off and land to get around a city.
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The Next Web reports that Recode had a chance to speak with Uber’s head of products Jeff Holden at The Nantucket Project conference where it was made known that the company is researching small planes with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities.
Holden said the idea is to offer customers “as many options as possible to move around.”
He added that VTOL planes would not need a long runway like traditional aircraft and could prove to be a clever way to avoid traffic jams. These aircraft would still need ample space to land as much as a helicopter needs a landing pad which could prove challenging for congested cities.
Uber is not the first company to explore flight as a means of commuter transportation and will most likely not be the last. While technology for VTOL taxis are still being developed, it would be interesting to see how the self-driving Uber car trials would fare. Alfred Bayle
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