Flying cars? Uber’s working on it
And you thought driverless cars were the future?
Not content with being one of the first companies to get the autonomous technology on to real-life roads, Uber's not stopping there and is already planning ahead for what the next big thing might be after that.
The billion-dollar startup has revealed it's looking at technology which could produce vertical take off and landing – yep, basically a flying car.
Read more: The world's first driverless taxis have hit the road (beating Uber)
Uber's head of product Jeff Holden told a conference audience it wants to "some day offer customers as many options as possible to move around" and that it was "an obvious thing to do".
It may sound out of this world, but Holden is confident this kind of invention is only a decade away. He said he believes VTOL (that's Vertical Take Off and Landing) is no flight of fancy, but another way of achieving Uber's mission in life – doing away with the concept of owning your own car.
Already in prototype phase is a Jetson's style drone for carrying people being developed by Chinese company Ehang and being tested in Las Vegas, so the technology, known as VTOL is perhaps not quite as "out there" as you might think. Other companies working on turning science fiction into science fact include startups Terrafugia and Aeromobil.
Read more: The Jetsons' flying car just came a step closer to reality