Inside Uber's Plan to Take Over the Skies With Flying Cars

In less than a decade, Uber has redefined the idea of flexible labor and gutted the American taxi industry. The company launched a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Within a decade, according to a 99-page white paper released today, Uber will have a network--to be called "Elevate"--of on-demand, fully electric aircraft that take off and land vertically. Instead of slogging down the 101, you and a few other flyers will get from San Francisco to Silicon Valley in about 15 minutes--for the price of private ride on the ground with UberX. These aren't flying cars in the sense that they both drive on the ground and soar through the air.