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There’s no denying that Uber’s influence to the world of motoring has been a big one and a quick one to boot. They are in their own right a tech giant now rather than a “taxi firm”, branching out with their fingers in as many weird and wonderful pies as they can find.

But at Walton Bridge Garage we’re not sure on their latest piece of news. The phrase ‘don’t run before you can walk’ springs to mind. Although in their case it is probably more of a case of ‘don’t fly before you can successfully automate on the road’.

That’s right, despite their ongoing struggle (against both technology and the law) to perfect the art of automated cars, Uber have branched out into flying cars.

Uber Elevate (the firms flying research arm) has announced the hire of a pretty high-profile engineer to get their project off the ground (ahem). You would be forgiven for thinking it was Scaramanga, given the Bond villain already had this down 44 years ago in the Man with the Golden Gun.

But no.

It is actually NASA engineer Mark Moore. Jumping in as director of engineer for aviation, Moore has long believed the implementation of flying cars could be easier than we think.

Now before we believe the dawn of the future depicted in films such as the Fifth Element are almost upon us, they’re not. Uber are currently struggling to get automated cars into the game, imagine the additional requirements needed for flying cars, the airspace regulations alone would be a nightmare.

But Moore believes that with 55 million riders, a case for safe and efficient skyways can be made and is confident that the first gen of flying cars isn’t that far off. There is an initial prototype in the mix with a range of 50 to 100 miles but the buzz kill is that they are designed as taxis, not for personal use.

However realistic, or unrealistic this might sound, it certainly makes for exciting reading.

Although we aren’t sure how our fantastic value and customer service will transfer to them.

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