• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech40 Under 40

Uber Hopes Flying Cars Are the Future of Transportation

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 27, 2016, 4:03 PM ET
US-TRANSPORT-ECONOMY-UBER
Photograph by Mark Ralston — AFP/Getty Images

White papers about futuristic transportation machines are en vogue—first, Elon Musk, now Uber.

On Thursday, the ride-hailing company published a nearly 100-page white paper outlining a flying transportation vehicle referred to as a VTOL aircraft, short for “vertical take-off and landing” vehicle. Someday, Uber argues, we’ll be using these small flying vehicles instead of cars.

“On-demand aviation has the potential to radically improve urban mobility, giving people back time lost in their daily commutes,” Uber head of product Jeff Holden wrote in a blog post introducing the white paper. “We view helping to solve this problem as core to our mission and our commitment to our rider base. Just as skyscrapers allowed cities to use limited land more efficiently, urban air transportation will use three-dimensional airspace to alleviate transportation congestion on the ground.”

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Uber says that these aircrafts have several advantage over traditional road transportation because the necessary infrastructure will be less expensive than roads, bridges, and tunnels; they don’t need to follow specific paths like roads; and eventually they’ll be very affordable once they reach a certain scale.

Uber also identifies the most critical challenges we’ll have to tackle before we’re all jetting around in our own flying cars. They include certification from the main aviation agencies like the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, improving battery technology and aircraft energy efficiency, managing air traffic, lowering costs, ensuring passenger safety, decreasing aircraft noise and emissions, and providing pilot training, among others.

Uber is far from the first company dream up a future in which we travel using this type of compact aircraft. A number of startups such as Zee.areo, Terrafugia, and Kitty Hawk have been building vehicles for years already.

But that doesn’t seem to be problem for Uber. Much like in the case of self-driving cars, Uber doesn’t want to become a vehicle maker.

“Rather than manufacture VTOL hardware ourselves, we instead look to collaborate with vehicle developers, regulators, city and national governments, and other community stakeholders, while bringing to the table a very fertile market of excited consumers and a clear vehicle and operations use case,” Holden says in the blog post.

In short, Uber says it will put the aircrafts to use in its transportation service, but it doesn’t want to build them.

Up next, the company says it will be contacting regulators, companies, and potential customers in an effort to continue researching this mode of transportation. It’s also planning a related conference in “early 2017.”

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

startup team smiles in front of camera
CryptoCryptocurrency
Exclusive: Megapot raises $5 million to create a crypto-powered global lottery
By Carlos GarciaMarch 26, 2026
3 hours ago
Water storage construction on the Meta data center site in Holly Ridge, Richland Parish, Louisiana.
AIEye on AI
Inside Meta’s chaotic AI boomtown in rural Louisiana
By Sharon GoldmanMarch 26, 2026
4 hours ago
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg
SuccessCareers
30-year-old CEO of $11 billion Harvey earned the backing of OpenAI and Sam Altman. He says you have to ‘re-earn’ your role every 6 months
By Preston ForeMarch 26, 2026
5 hours ago
SuccessHiring
Duolingo CEO’s taxi driver test decides who gets hired—before the interview even starts
By Sydney LakeMarch 26, 2026
6 hours ago
chaplin
AIAI agents
‘Intelligence may be scalable, but accountability is not’: A new report exposes the hidden cost of the AI agent revolution
By Nick LichtenbergMarch 26, 2026
7 hours ago
wyle
HealthTV
‘The Pitt’ shows an ER getting shut down by a cyberattack that is totally true to life
By Jeffrey Tully, Christian Dameff and The ConversationMarch 26, 2026
7 hours ago

Most Popular

C-Suite
'I didn’t want anybody shooting me': Five Guys CEO gave away $1.5 million bonus to employees over botched BOGO burger birthday celebration
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
1 day ago
Success
Palantir’s billionaire CEO says only two kinds of people will succeed in the AI era: trade workers — ‘or you’re neurodivergent’
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
2 days ago
Environment
Vail Resorts CEO says it’s time to think beyond the $1,000 ski pass that helped build the empire
By Fortune EditorsMarch 26, 2026
14 hours ago
Success
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says remote work breeds ‘rope-a-dope politics’ and stunts young workers’ growth
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
1 day ago
Commentary
The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
3 days ago
Magazine
The youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is fighting Trump's cuts to keep Medicaid strong
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.