What do flying taxis have to do with HVAC or Building Automation? Probably not much, maybe some executive that we know or some crack shot technician or system integrator might use one in a pinch, but keeping up with the overall pace of disruptive technology is a good thing.
Thinking outside of the box isn’t vast enough anymore, you now need keep your imagination pedal floored. For those that can remember the cartoon, The Jetsons, the idea of taking a little space ship to work used to be preposterous. But not since UBER hired NASA’s Mark Moore in February of this year. Uber’s flying car initiative known as Uber Elevate, utilizing VTOLs (Vertical TakeOff and Landing vehicles), or flying cars are expected to be flying in cities like Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Dubai by the year 2020.
Here’s the take on Uber’s future from Brad Stone of BloombergTechnology: Uber’s vision is a seductive one, particularly for sci-fi fans. The ride-hailing company envisions people taking conventional Ubers from their homes to nearby “vertiports” that dot residential neighborhoods. Then they would zoom up into the air and across town to the vertiport closest to their offices. (“We don’t need stinking bridges!” says Moore.) These air taxis will only need ranges of between 50 to 100 miles, and Moore thinks that they can be at least partially recharged while passengers are boarding or exiting the aircraft. He also predicts we’ll see several well-engineered flying cars in the next one to three years and that there will be human pilots, at least managing the onboard computers, for the foreseeable future.
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