Uber just started working on flying cars

If all goes well, you may be able to fly over the boring city traffic on your Uber. To believe a news report by Bloomberg, the cab aggregator has hired an advanced aircraft engineer, Mark Moore, at NASA's Langley Research Center. Moore's research into so-called VTOL - short for vertical takeoff and landing, or more colloquially, flying cars - inspired at least one billionaire technologist.

Moore is coming on board Uber as the director of engineering for aviation at the ride-hailing company. He will be working on Uber Elevate, the flying car initiative. "I can't think of another company in a stronger position to be the leader for this new ecosystem and make the urban electric VTOL markreal," he told Bloomberg.

However it’s not time to get too excited. Moore acknowledged that many obstacles stand in the way, and they're not only technical. He says each flying car company would need to independently negotiate with suppliers to get prices down, and lobby regulators to certify aircrafts and relax airtraffic restrictions. But he says Uber, with its 55 million active riders, can uniquely demonstrate that there could be a massive, profitable and safe market. "If you don't have a business case that makes economic sense, than all of this is just a wild tech game and not really a wise investment," Moore told Bloomberg.