Gadgetory

with seven billion Earthlings and Counting traffic can be a nightmare that's why we're taking a look at the future of transportation your aircraft is outside and will depart in five minutes welcome to what the future on today's show goobers vision for on-demand air travel the unveiling of the world's first Hyperloop passenger pod and a lunar lander that aims to bring us closer to Mars let's get into it the most obvious way to ease traffic is to add a third dimension that's why Ober aims to take us to the skies with uber air uber has been developing its electronic vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for some time now the design seats up to four passengers it could someday move at speeds of up to 150 to 200 miles per hour and travel up to 60 miles on a single charge uber has also shared several potential sky port designs the Skyport components will be modular meaning they could be combined in different configurations and scaled up or down with relative ease the unique design could handle up to 200 flights per hour when they arrive at the Skyport uber aircraft will enter an autonomous queue where passengers can board and disembark Los Angeles and Dallas have been selected as the first to launch cities along with a third launch city that has yet to be announced there are many safety and regulatory hurdles standing in the way of this plan the aircraft needs to be built an FAA certified first uber is pushing to get its flying taxis in the air by 2020 for some demonstration flights and the company hopes to have its paid air service up and running by 2023 uber says that uber air will cost about five dollars and 73 cents per passenger mile at launch however if it can realize its goal of creating a mass-produced automated aircraft that price could fall to as low as a buck 84 there are many companies trying to stake their claim as the future of Transportation comes into focus Airbus and Terrafugia both have their own airborne rideshare systems and development and beneath the surface of the earth a different race for transportation domination rages on I'm talking of course about Hyperloop Hyperloop transportation technologies also known as HTT recently unveiled the world's first Hyperloop passenger pod the 100-foot tube weighs a whopping five tons and has been designed to send passengers whizzing through magnetic tubes at up to 700 miles per hour the pod contains two layers of a new smart material invented by HTT that's called vibranium where have I heard that name before because by bringing him on the strings this titanium all around HTT vibranium is basically a type of carbon fiber that's embedded with sensors that can wirelessly transmit information about temperature stability and integrity the pod has a double layer of vibranium so that there's a backup in case the outer layer gets damaged hgts main competitor is virgin Hyperloop 1 which has its own prototype pods including a cargo pod and a prototype passenger pod in Dubai that was designed by BMW as cool as those pods are it will still be several years before you can take the Hyperloop to work Richard Branson says he wants it up and running in three years but with safety and regulatory hurdles to be overcome it could be even longer than that sometimes the journey is less important than the destination especially when that destination is Mars Lockheed Martin is developing a reusable lunar lander that will live on the moon's surface never returning to Earth instead it will shuttle astronauts to and from a space station in lunar orbit which NASA calls a gateway the lunar lander can carry up to four crew members and enough supplies to equip a lunar encampment for up to two weeks the lander can also use water collected from the ice on the moon to produce liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellant the lunar gateway will serve as a logistical Waypoint making it easier for astronauts to explore the moon's surface both NASA and Lockheed expected this lunar gateway system could be an important learning experience for developing something similar to help explore Mars in the future it's time for a question from one of our viewers richard Perryman asked us on facebook who or what controls the uber air traffic thanks for the question richard uber says that urban air space and current air traffic control systems could accommodate up to hundreds of vehicles without making any big changes however to handle the air traffic density necessary for this type of flying service to become mainstream new air traffic control systems will be needed uber envisions low altitude operations will be automatically prioritized to avoid conflicts while the vehicles themselves will utilize a set of visual flight rules similar to those used by pilots when flying independent of air traffic control uber says that developing these new control systems will take years and it could end up being a limiting factor in uber airs growth what makes you say WTF let us know in the comments that's all for this week thanks very much for watching I'm Jesse Aurel filling in for Andy Altman's we'll see you next time on what the future