NASA teams up with Uber to map the skies of the future

​US space agency NASA has signed a second agreement with ride-hailing service Uber to explore the potential of flying cars.

Uber has been working on autonomous aerial vehicles, and will share its plans with NASA, which will use its simulation expertise to model how large numbers of small aircraft could safely co-exist in the skies above our cities.

Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer, said the new agreement would combine Uber’s “massive-scale engineering expertise with NASA’s decades of subject matter experience”.

Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said: “Urban air mobility could revolutionise the way people and cargo move in our cities and fundamentally change our lifestyle much like smartphones have.”

From its research facility at Dallas Fort Worth airport in Texas, NASA will use the Uber data to simulate a small passenger aircraft making its way through the airport’s airspace at peak time. These simulations will help to identify potential safety issues as these aircraft join an already crowded air traffic control system.

“NASA is excited to be partnering with Uber and others in the community to identify the key challenges facing the urban air mobility market, and explore necessary research, development and testing requirements to address those challenges,” said Shin.