Uber May Upgrade to Flying Cars Within the Next Decade

Sep 28, 2016 05:39 AM EDT | Staff Reporter

Flying cars have always been a thing of science fiction.

Lately, concepts have been developed. And the concepts bring forward the prospects of being able to beat the traffic of the city through these flying wheels, as well as same the time which is extremely valuable.

However, Uber, in their latest announcement have gone a step further. They have declared that within a decade, they will be ready with flying cars - automated drone taxis.

The words came out from Jeff Holden, Uber's head of product. He said that the company has already been researching on the "vertical take off and landing" (VTOL) technology. With this ability, the vehicle could take off, as well as land vertically, instead of the traditional horizontal path.

Recode said that "Holden said that he has been researching the area, 'so we can someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around."

He added that "doing it in a three-dimensional way is an obvious thing to look at."

Holden said in the interview that such technology could be in use within a decade, which is an aggressive prediction, given the issues around the complexity of movement in the air above densely populated areas. (Also, you know, the possibility of these VTOL vehicles crashing into each other.)"

However, it must be noted that Uber isn't the only one who is striving to make these flying cars. The Telegraph reports that "Earlier this year Ehang, a Chinese company, unveiled the 184, an autonomous quadcopter drone designed to carry a single passenger, with a battery life of 23 minutes. The 184, which has been slated for release as early as this year, is expected to cost up to $300,000 (£232,000)."

Google founder Larry Page is one of the major believers in flying cars, putting $100m of his own money into startups developing the technology."

How would a three-dimensional traffic look like? With already so many crashes happening on the road, could we deal with cabs in the sky, that too in the form of drones? The question persists, and clear traffic regulation rules lack.

In other news, click here to read what happens when you ignore Tesla's autopilot warning.

See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?

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