Get ready to cross a major accomplishment off the bucket list you made in your third grade dream journal, because Uber announced today (at its Elevate Summit) that it plans to have a network of flying cars in Dallas and Dubai by 2020. My first thought was well that’s what 10, 15 years away? But guys, it’s 2017. Uber is telling us we can have someone fly us home from work like we’re Lois Lane being carried aloft by Superman in a little under three years!
Uber doesn’t plan to invent the flying car themselves, but instead are relying on partnerships with such businesses as Aurora Flight Services, Pipistrel Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, and Embraer, all of whom are working on making the tech for the cars a reality. They’re also talking to NASA and the National Air Traffic Control Association, though probably the biggest hurdle (in the whole mess of hurdles to make this a reality) is the FAA. But the FAA has slowly been dipping their toes into the whole flying car thing, so it seems like they may be getting more on board.
The cars, Uber says, would work more like a helicopter than a literal car in the sky and they’re partnering with real estate companies in Dallas and Dubai to plan takeoff pads and launch locations. The plan is to have a 1000 of them in operation over the next few years. So you’ll be flown to the nearest location to your destination (like a train or bus stop) rather than going directly to your work place and then having your car fall out of the sky like a piano on top of your terrible boss.
Like self-driving cars, the prospect of flying cars is incredibly exciting. It could cut commute times from an hour or more to mere minutes. But also like self-driving cars, the tech definitely isn’t quite there yet, and whether or not Uber can (as it claims) get the cost down to the price of a current UberX ride, we’re still pretty skeptical. That doesn’t mean we aren’t squealing on the inside though. We could very well have a flying car before we have our next president. The future really is now.
