Head of Uber products, Jeff Holden, has said the world’s largest ride-sharing company is exploring airborne modes of transport as a future service.
While at the Nantucket Conference this week, Holden shared his companies plans to explore VTOL technology to provide short-haul flights within cities.
Holden suggested the technology could reduce long commutes to as little as nine minutes.
VTOL stands for vertical take-off and landing, which technically describes any aircraft with hovering capabilities, like a helicopter. However these VTOL aircrafts possess a streamlined exterior similar to a traditional airplane, as well as more rotors than a traditional helicopter.
In time he aims for VTOL aircrafts, like driverless cars, to be autonomous.
“It could change cities and how we work and live,” Holden said to Recode during an onstage interview at the conference.
Prototypes of the VTOL plane have been assessed and experimented for use within the US military.
For civilian use, aeronautics research firm Airbus have been working on “single-passenger” air taxi vehicles. Prototypes are scheduled to take flight by next year’s end.
With Airbus’s timeline in mind, Holden said he thinks VTOL technology will be ready for commercial use within in 10 years.
Uber has proved it is at the forefront of transportation technology, having already trialled driverless Uber cars in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Uber has even expanded their services to offering food delivery with products like UberEATS.
So when it comes to what they’ll do next, Holden said the sky is literally the limit.
“[The plan is to] someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around. Doing it in a three-dimensional way is an obvious thing to look at.”
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