Just four months after officially joining the flying car revolution, Uber has added a big name to orchestrate its innovative plans.
Mark Moore, a 30-year veteran of NASA, is ditching the government agency to take on Uber's director of engineering for aviation gig, according to the ride-hailing company. Moore's primary role is to enhance the San Francisco company's flying car strategy coined Uber Elevate, a program originally outlined in a 98-page white paper released in October.
The enticing and futuristic proposal would work like this: Uber users would catch a traditional ride or walk to a neighborhood "vertiport." Riders would then climb aboard a flying car and float to another "vertiports" located near the rider's destination.
Uber won't actually be constructing these vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, gizmos. The ride-hailing service plans to collaborate with other companies leading the charge in the flying car industry.
"Uber continues to see its role as a catalyst to the growing developing VTOL ecosystem," Nikheil Goel, head of product for advanced programs at Uber, wrote in a statement. "We're excited to have (Moore) join us to work with companies and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our white paper."
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Before any flying cars operated by Uber are zooming above clogged commutes, a slew of issues, including noise pollution, battery life, safety and air-traffic concerns, will need to be checked off of the to-do list. Moore's expertise is being tapped to address those concerns.
The San Francisco-based company isn't the only collective thinking about the future of transportation, as reported by Bloomberg. Google co-founder Larry Page is said to have commissioned Zee Aero and Kitty Hawk — two startups in the Silicon Valley — to create flying car capabilities.