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from the Bring-on-Korben-Dallas-and-Leeloo dept.
Uber on Thursday laid out a vision for on-demand aircraft that can whisk commuters to home or work in a fraction of the time it would take on the road.
The ride-sharing giant assessed the feasibility of what it called "vertical take-off and landing" vehicles in a 98-page white paper, inviting innovators and entrepreneurs to take flight with the idea.
San Francisco-based Uber said it will be reaching out to cities, manufacturers and others about the concept.
"Just as skyscrapers allowed cities to use limited land more efficiently, urban air transportation will use three-dimensional airspace to alleviate transportation congestion on the ground," said the white paper, authored by Uber chief product officer Jeff Holden and product manager Nikhil Goel.
"A network of small, electric aircraft that take off and land vertically will enable rapid, reliable transportation between suburbs and cities and, ultimately, within cities."
Diagrams in the paper showed aircraft bodies of various designs with propellers that can rotate to allow for vertical lift-off or landing, then move into position for flying forward.
Perhaps Vitalstatistix was onto something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @04:15PM
Good points, and when we finally transition into heavy renewable energy the power inefficiency will become much less. I would still prefer if our work lives weren't so crazy and we could enjoy longer trips. Also, walking from the station to work or wherever helps maintain regular exercise. Hmm, with the added chances of vehicles falling out of the sky over a densely populated city, I think it might be better if we stuck to rail and other mass transit options.
Started out pro-flight, quickly wound up anti-flight. I think as a very limited business this would be good, up to the FAA to develop flight paths and limit air traffic.