Uber and NASA will develop software for flying taxi

One of the robotics concepts for the Uber Elevate project (UberAIR flying taxi service)



Uber has entered into an agreement such as the Space Act Agreement with NASA on the development of software for routing "flying taxis". Uber claims that for NASA this is generally the first service contract in history that covers low-altitude aircraft, not space transportation.



Uber Chief Executive Officer Jeber Holden (Jeff Holden) said that Uber intends to begin testing the first copies of robotaxi in areas of Dubai, Dallas and Los Angeles already in 2020, that is, within three years.



At first, it is planned to test a four-seater taxi model at a speed of 320 km / h



At the moment, the company has launched the Elevate project, prepared a plan for the development of air transport with a description of market prospects and made demonstration videos - for now everything is. There is a recruitment of staff for the Elevate project in almost all positions.





According to the project, parking robotaxi planned to do on the roofs of houses, and the cars themselves can be light aircraft with electric motors. However, Uber is not going to produce them on its own, but will only manage the taxi company. As examples of possible cars, the company cites the concepts of several private companies, including those from Zee.Aero , Joby Aviation , Airbus A3 ( Vahana model),



For example, the illustrations below show the concepts of Joby Aviation (model S2) and Airbus A3 (model Vahana).







Other possible flying vehicle designs are mentioned, including the 18-rotor eVolo Volocopter and the quadro / octocopter eHang 184 .





18-rotor eVolo Volocopter



Uber writes that only the leading manufacturers of air transport are listed here, and in fact there will be much more. Now the main task is to create standards for the movement of multiple machines at low altitude, the work of dispatching services and coordination of routes. It is precisely this task that NASA sets itself, and Uber, as one of the leading taxi services, will develop the appropriate software.