---
title: "Uber Is Researching Flying Taxis"
description: "Ride-hailing company wants to give people rides in the sky."
date: "2016-09-26"
modified: "2016-09-26"
authors:
  - name: "Will Sabel Courtney"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/will-sabel-courtney"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/5324/uber-is-researching-flying-taxis"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "flying cars"
  - "Uber"
---

# Uber Is Researching Flying Taxis

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/airvinci-taxi-uber.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Well, this is an interesting turn. In order to better handle the transportation needs of urban dwellers, [Uber is looking into vehicles that could take off and land vertically](<https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flying-uber-taxis-could-be-reality-within-decade-1583343>). In other words...flying taxis.

In a discussion at the Nantucket Conference yesterday, [Uber products head Jeff Holden said the company has been looking into offering short flights](<https://www.recode.net/2016/9/25/13048094/uber-vertical-takeoff-aircraft-jeff-holden>) around cities “so we can someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around,” according to *Recode*. The Uber product boss did not specify whether the vertical-takeoff-and-landing craft, or VTOL, would be piloted like traditional aircraft, remote-controlled, fully autonomous, or [some combination thereof, like Airvinci's helicopter drones](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/4184/airvincis-personal-helicopter-drone-could-become-the-uber-of-the-skies>) (pictured above).

Holden claimed the technology could be available within a decade; that said, clearing the legislative and logistic hurdles involved with creating a network of flying taxis in a dense urban environment...especially considering the millions of drones that may clog the nation’s airspace by then, [delivering burritos](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/5138/google-and-chipotle-are-building-burrito-delivery-drones>) and [pizza to hungry, lazy consumers](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/5004/dominos-has-created-a-flying-pizza-delivery-drone>).

Uber has previously dabbled in flight, [offering on-demand helicopter services in markets like Sao Paolo, Brazil](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/3991/uber-now-offering-cheap-helicopter-flights-on-demand-in-brazil>). Those efforts, however, were more of a marketing endeavor than an actual attempt to provide mass-market transportation, according to Holden.

Holden said he sees the urban flight operations as a far more awesome form of UberPool, in which users could share flying vehicles as they hop between rooftops. In time, he said, VTOL transportation could play a key role in Uber’s goal of ultimately eliminating private car ownership. (Did it just get chilly in here? We just started shivering.)

While most of Uber’s current operations are software-based, with the app simply connecting drivers and riders, the ride-hailing company has been pushing into the hardware side of the industry with increasing vigor. Earlier this month, the company deployed its [inaugural fleet of self-driving cars out of its laboratory in Pittsburgh](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4895/uber-and-volvo-rolling-out-self-driving-taxis-in-pittsburgh-this-month>)—an effort that Holden has also been deeply involved with.

## Author
Will is the former managing editor of *RIDES Magazine* and the former online editor for *0-60 Magazine*. He has worked for *Time Out New York* and *Rolling Stone*, and was the creator of *College Cars Online*, the first automotive blog specifically targeted at college students and young professionals.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/willsabelcourtney>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/willscourtney>)