Uber Elevate Will Soon be a Reality in Dallas – The Era of the Flying Car is Here

As we reported in May of last year, the “Uber Elevate” project is coming to north Texas. That’s right, the Jetson-esque future that you were always told about as a child is coming to reality in Dallas following a joint announcement made by the city and the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company. As the first American city to test out flying cars, Dallas is hoping the pilot (no pun intended) project will prove effective in not only altering our mode of transportation but eradicating the concept of traffic jams.

Going by the acronym, VTOL (vertical take-off and landing), these cars/aircraft are part of a six-year plan unveiled by Uber for the use of small aircraft on-demand. One of two cities chosen for the launch (the other being Dubai), Uber’s Chief Product Officer, Jeff Holden, stated in a prior interview that Dallas was selected based on its “rich history of aviation.” In addition, the DFW area was noted for its rapid population growth, making it an excellent testing ground for the initiative.

As seen in the video above, shared on the CBSDFW YouTube channel, the flying car formats are being conceptualized and built at Bell – an aviation company located near Fort Worth. The flying units are defined as “Tesla meets a first-class airplane” by Bell. A long-time NASA engineer who’s been working on the project also stated that five “vertiports” (similar to helipad designs) were being proposed for the city in conjunction with the cars. Uber’s plan was to roll-out the project for 2020, and all evidence is pointing in that direction! To date, there has been no indication what the cost to hire such an air-taxi will be.