Hyundai and Uber VTOL Air Taxi Concept

It feels like it’s been an eternity since we first reported–to the shock of absolutely no one–that Uber was working on flying cars. The Uber Elevate Air Taxi surface was originally touted as being airborne by 2020, which we thought was a pipe dream because none of the other prototype flying cars ever really materialized… until Hyundai and Uber unveiled the full-scale VTOL (vertical take off and landing) S-A1 air taxi concept at CES yesterday. Developed by Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobility Division for the Uber Elevate service, this absolute unit of a plane has a cruising speed of 180 mph, cruising altitude of 1,000 – 2,000 feet, can tackle trips up to 60 miles and is entirely electric. The concept will only have 4 passenger seats in the cabin when it finally takes off, but that could increase as Hyundai plans to phase out human pilots in favor of automation.