A 30-year engineering veteran of NASA has joined Uber as the ride sharing company seeks to develop flying cars.
According to Bloomberg, Mark Moore wrote a 2010 paper about flying cars — technically called vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). That research inspired Google co-founder Larry Page to start and finance two startups dedicated to developing the technology.
Now, Moore has left his advanced aircraft engineer job at NASA for a director of engineering for aviation at Uber.
"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," Moore told Bloomberg.
Uber published a paper about flying cars last year and admitted the technology is in its infancy. Still, the prospect of shaving time off morning and evening commutes is enticing.
"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," Nikhil Goel, Uber's head of product for advanced programs, told Bloomberg.
Uber's idea for using flying cars involves picking up a customer in a normal car and driving to them to a local "vertiport," where they will hitch an air taxi ride to near their office. If necessary, another Uber car will drive them the remainder of the route.
Airbus is also working on developing a flying car and expects to have a working prototype by the end of this year.
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