.@Uber - uberAIR: Closer than you think (Uber Elevate)

"Imagine traveling from San Francisco’s Marina to work in downtown San Jose — a drive that would normally occupy the better part of two hours — in only 15 minutes. What if you could save nearly four hours round-trip between São Paulo’s city center and the suburbs in Campinas? Or imagine reducing your 90-plus minute stop-and-go commute from Gurgaon to your office in central New Delhi to a mere six minutes."

-Uber website

As part of Uber's ElevateInitiative, they have recently partnered with NASA to develop an on-demand electric aircraft taxi service, which is scheduled to launch in 2020. 

Uber's head of product, Jeff Holden, announced at the Web Summit in Lisbon last week, that under NASA's Space Act Agreement, Uber will be able to develop low-flying aircrafts for urban environments, for a taxi service dubbed uberAIR. 

uberAIR aircrafts, will be capable of taking off and landing vertically for a quicker and more environmentally friendly travel. The Vertical Take-off and Landing aircrafts (VTOLs) will be able to carry up to four passengers at a time, allowing the possibility for ride-sharing on the new transportation form. uberAIR aircrafts will be able to alleviate troublesome traffic in urban cities, as they do not need to follow a specific route that other public transportation forms like buses and trains are bound to. 

"VTOL aircraft will make use of electric propulsion so they have zero operational emissions and will likely be quiet enough to operate in cities without disturbing the neighbors. At flying altitude, noise from advanced electric vehicles will be barely audible. Even during take-off and landing, the noise will be comparable to existing background noise," states Uber's website. 

uberAIR will begin testing in Los Angeles, as they are notoriously known for their heavy traffic issues, and subsequently, Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco. 

Check out the UberAir promo video below. 

Via: uber.com