LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA and Uber have signed an agreement to explore putting flying taxis in the skies over US cities.
NASA said Tuesday that it will begin simulations for so-called “urban air mobility” vehicles that also include delivery drones.
The announcement comes as the Uber Elevate summit in Los Angeles brings together tech and transportation leaders to discuss the future of urban aviation.
NASA says the goal is to create a rideshare network that will allow residents to hail a small aircraft the same way Uber users can now use an app to call a car.
The space agency says simulations are planned at its research facility at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
At its research facility at the DFW Airport, NASA will use the data supplied by Uber to simulate a small passenger-carrying aircraft as it flies through DFW airspace during peak scheduled air traffic. Analysis of these simulations will identify safety issues as these new aircraft take to the air in an already crowded air traffic control system.
“The new space act agreement broadening Uber’s partnership with NASA is exciting, because it allows us to combine Uber’s massive-scale engineering expertise with NASA’s decades of subject matter experience across multiple domains that are key to enabling urban air mobility, starting with airspace systems,” said Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer.