Uber has signed a deal with NASA to develop software for the air taxi it plans to have in service within five years. At a web conference in Lisbon on Wednesday, Uber’s Jeff Holden said the company is teaming with NASA to develop a range of technologies designed to track and de-conflict its human-carrying quadcopters from each other and from other manned aircraft.
Earlier this year, Uber announced plans to develop an on-demand air-taxi system that will initially test in Dallas, followed by Los Angeles by 2020. The company said it hopes to launch UberAir before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “Technology will allow LA residents to literally fly over the city’s historically bad traffic, giving them time back to use in far more productive ways,” Holden said,according to a report in USA Today. “At scale, we expect UberAir will perform tens of thousands of flights each day across the city,” he added. Uber hired NASA veterans Mark Moore and Tom Prevot to run the program. Moore, an electric aircraft expert, will oversee aircraft vehicle design and Prevot will handle air traffic management.
