Ride sharing giant Uber has announced it will work with NASA to bring flying taxis to Los Angeles by 2020.
Project Elevate will develop four-person, electric, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, regulated by an air traffic control system to be developed by NASA with a number of industry partners as part of its Space Act Agreement.
The agreement aims to ensure safe and efficient operations of small aerial systems like drones and eventually small aircraft flying at low altitudes, to keep sky traffic orderly.
Uber envisions commuters catching air taxis from the top of skyscrapers, and delivering them to their homes in the suburbs.
It hopes to build a fleet of electric jet-powered vehicles – part helicopter, part drone, part fixed-wing aircraft – running multiple rotors to take off and land vertically, and fly horizontally at 322km, or 200 miles per hour.
Trials are planned for Los Angeles by 2020. Dallas, Texas and Dubai are also possible demo sites.
The company acknowledges the many regulatory and technological hurdles it will face.
“We are very much embracing the regulatory bodies and starting very early in discussions about this and getting everyone aligned with the vision,” Chief Product Office Jeff Holden told The New Daily.
Each day millions of hours are wasted on the road worldwide, says Uber, and with its network of drivers collecting traffic data, it should know.
The company says it has partnered with five aircraft manufacturers Two NASA veterans will run its aircraft vehicle design team and air traffic management software program.
Image: Uber.
Smart cities are boring
City dwellers haven’t been wowed by transformative Smart City applications because they are unresponsive, writes TechCrunch.
“Cities may be getting smarter, but they haven’t noticeably changed from a user perspective,” says Colin O’Donnell, Chief Innovation Officer with smart cities consultant Intersection.
“It seems like most of the digital advances in cities have been invisible and focused on city operations, rather than on the parts of the city that people can see, touch, and use.”
Channelling the data collected from sensors into real-time action will create truly engaging smart cities.
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” Place Design Group Associate, Liam Isaksen, said: “The factory tour is a fun experience to learn about the design and manufacturing process of public furniture we use in landscape architecture design. Seeing the work behind the scenes and …
Did you catch these most-read case studies, furnishing tips, new product announcements and special industry events in your StreetChat updates in 2023? Each month our StreetChat enewsletter publishes new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe to receive it in your inbox. 10. Which design firm can see Longhorn Cattle from their office window? 2 countries. 9 cities. 300 landscape architects. Street Furniture Australia and USA partner Spruce & Gander visited offices in Australia and Texas. There were key similarities and some notable standouts. 9. Jazz at The Mint: Product and Book Launch Sydney landscape architects gathered at the iconic Mint Courtyard to launch a design book by our founding directors Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison, and expansions to the Linea collection. 8. 2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to …
Street Furniture Australia has designed and built prototype charging stands as part of a Transport for NSW program to deliver free phone chargers at 15 Sydney train stations. Developed by Street Furniture Australia’s inhouse industrial designers in collaboration with Transport for NSW, the prototypes offer wireless, USB-A and USB-C charging, and can power 7 devices at once. They were built at the Street Furniture Australia factory in Western Sydney. Two Power Spots are now installed at Liverpool and Campbelltown stations. The $1 million Power Spots Project rollout to 15 transport hubs including Bankstown, Hurstville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Wynyard, Central, Town Hall and Bondi Junction will be completed by late 2024. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Power Spots provide peace of mind: “In the modern world, our phones are our …
Rich millennials drop golf for ‘agrihoods’: Twenty-five years ago moving near a golf course was a status symbol, largely for the green space and views, but millennials aren’t interested in that type of manicured neighbourhood, writes the Business Insider. Forget empty swathes of green, millennials are more interested in farm-to-table living, with around 150 master-planned housing communities built around working farms, known as agricultural neighbourhoods or ‘agrihoods’ appearing around the US. The homes feature solar panels and composting, and are often minutes from city centres so as to not sacrifice work opportunities for lifestyle. The trend means that in some places, communities are doing away with golf courses to make room for sustainable living. Read more. Photo by Rancho Mission Viejo, Facebook. The war on sitting: US and UK city councils can’t …
Why Are Little Kids in Japan So Independent? Parents in Japan regularly send their kids out into the world at a very young age, even six or seven years old, CityLab reports. By giving them this freedom, Japanese parents place significant trust in their kids, and in the whole community. One stepmother said she wouldn’t let a child ride the subway alone in London or New York – just in Tokyo, where any member of the community can be asked for help thanks to a greater sense of social responsibility in shared spaces. A popular television show, My First Errand, follows kids as young as two or three as they buy groceries by themselves for the first time. The show has been running for more than 25 years. Small-scaled urban spaces and a culture of …
CityTree: intelligent air purifier A German-based start-up, Green City Solutions (GCS), has developed an intelligent natural air purifier, CityTree, that uses moss to trap pollutant particles. With the environmental benefit of up to 275 normal urban trees, the compact and mobile unit improves the air, cools it and protects the environment from noise. “We’re building a climate infrastructure,” says GCS co-founder Zhengliang Wu. The moss-covered air purifier, with inbuilt timber bench seats, harnesses the ability of moss cultures to filter pollutants out of the air, bind them to the leaf surface and integrate them permanently into their own biomass. The technological design of CityTree ensures the survival of the moss through an adequate supply of shade, water and nutrients; at the same time, the filter performance and the plants’ requirements …
