On November 8, Nasa and Uber announced their collaboration for a new taxi project.

Their plan is a futuristic project called UberAir. Nasa used Uber to develop a future flying taxi service.This association gives credit to an invention we have all dreamed about. Who knows, this might become real.

Jeff Holden, the director of the production gave more details about that idea. Dallas, Dubaï and Los Angeles will be the first to see the vehicles and the first to test them.Uber wants to have its first flight demonstration in 2020. The first flying taxis in service will be commercial by 2023.

The vehicles will be electric and you will just have to push a button to fly over the city and land. The taxis can be ordered through smartphones, similar to their ground versions. The vehicles are touted to be jet-powered and partly resembling helicopters, drones and fixed-winged aircrafts.This prototype will fly at a low altitude.

A startup will help Uber and Nasa for this project. They want to work on the devolvement of an instrument to manage an itinerary for the flying taxi.

If everything goes according to the plan, it will also be an economic issue. A commute between San Francisco and San Jose, which would typically take two hours during rush hour and cost $111, for the trip would last just 15 minutes.

The idea is to build a network of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that would greatly reduce commutes, while also helping to ease vehicle pollution in major cities.

written by Loan Mamone

edited by Olivier Mercier and Natalia Valero