Uber’s flying taxi director of engineering is joining us at TC Sessions: Mobility

If Uber gets its way, flying taxis will be coming our way in the next couple of years. The company plans to launch trials as early as 2020.

Mark Moore, Uber’s engineering director for Elevate, is one of the people tasked with making sure that happens. Moore joined the company back in 2017 from a 32-year-long career at NASA. At TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility, we’ll chat with Moore about how he’s bringing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles from a concept to reality in urban environments.

Uber Elevate is Uber’s all-encompassing term for its initiative to launch Uber Air, which is its aerial electric ride-hailing service, as well as any other initiatives (think food delivery) that may benefit from air transport. Once Uber’s vision is fully implemented, the service will be autonomous, and cheaper than the cost of owning a car, on a per-passenger, per-mile basis, the company says.

Initially, Uber Air will cost $5.73 per passenger mile. In the near-term, Uber says it will get the cost down to $1.86 per passenger mile before ideally getting to $0.44 per passenger mile. At that point, it would actually be cheaper to use Uber Air.

As we get closer to a future where ride-hailing takes it to the skies, Moore will walk us through the logistics necessary to make sure these eVTOLs are safe, efficient and affordable.

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