Uber taps NASA veteran to give flying-car technology a lift

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber Technologies is speeding ahead with plans for flying cars, which could zoom over congested traffic to and from neighboring urban centers, by hiring a NASA veteran who has presented research about the possibilities.

If it sounds like “The Jetsons” or the flying DeLorean in the “Back to the Future” movies, the comparison might be apt. Uber and others working in this new field call the flying cars “vertical take-off and landing aircraft,” or VTOL for short.

The new technologies are being touted as a way to ease the mammoth traffic jams that snarl busy employment hubs such as the Bay Area.

“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,” Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer, stated in a post at Medium.com. “Every day, millions of hours are wasted on the road worldwide.”

Uber said yesterday it has hired Mark Moore, chief technologist with the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.

“Uber continues to see its role as a catalyst to the growing and developing VTOL ecosystem,” said Nikhil Goel, Uber’s head of product for advanced programs. “We’re excited to have Mark join us to work with companies and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our white paper.”

Still, such initiatives are primarily blue-skies-type studying, rather than a world suddenly filled with flying vehicles overhead, analysts said.

“We are decades off from the reality of flying cars, but some companies are starting to do the research now,” said Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, which tracks tech trends. “Good on Uber to start seeing how feasible this is.”