Chief Product Officer, Uber, Jeff Holden announced the contract at the Web Summit in Lisbon. In addition, he also mentioned that Uber will start testing a taxi service flying at 200 miles per hour and loading 4 passengers it in Los Angeles by 2020, the second city to be a place to test their flying taxi project other than Dallas.
Uber said the taxi service would be fully electric. They also claim, a journey that takes 80 minutes using the car in rush hour can be reached in just 4 minutes using this service.
Uber also plans to operate its services at the LA Olympics in 2028. However, experts remain skeptical that autonomous flying taxis can materialize.
Holden said, "To be able to do this safely and efficiently requires major changes in space management technology in the air.Combining Uber's software expertise with decades of NASA-related aviation experience allows us to resolve this issue."
The Space Act agreement allows Uber to participate in projects to develop autonomous vehicle traffic management systems as well as drone flights. Uber said, they are not interested in making drones that they need themselves.
