This startup's new passenger drone is 'like a flight simulator that you can ride in,' CEO says

If Matt Chasen gets his way, there will be a time -- in the not-so-distant future -- when commuters are able to order an air taxi that whisks them across town in minutes, bypassing traffic-clogged streets below. For now, however, the chief executive of LIFT Aircraft will have to use his start-up's electric-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, the Hexa, for something else: 15-minute flights across a lake outside Austin, for $249 a pop. Though the flights will target a recreational crowd, Chasen sees them as a steppingstone to a new form of convenient urban transportation. "Today's regulatory environment does not allow for a transportation use of these aircraft -- yet," said Chasen, a former Boeing engineer with a background in mechanical and aerospace engineering. "We'll build public trust in the technology. Once that happens, it's inevitable that people will want to use it for certain types of commuting flights."