Uber has hired a former Nasa engineer to help it to research flying cars.优步(Uber)聘用了美国国家航空航天局(NASA)一名前工程师来帮助研究飞行中汽车。After more than 30 years at the US space agency, Mark Moore is joining Uber’s Elevate division as its director of engineering for aviation.在为NASA服务30多年后，马克?摩尔(Mark Moore)重新加入优步的“提高”(Elevate)部门，兼任飞行中工程技术总监。

The ride-hailing company first signalled its interest in short-range “vertical take-off and landing” (VTOL) technology in October, when it published a white paper discussing the potential for “on-demand aviation” to transform the daily commute.去年10月，这家叫车服务公司首次展现出出有对于短程“横向民航机”(VTOL)技术的兴趣，当时该公司公开发表一份白皮书，辩论利用“按须要航空服务”改变日常通勤模式的可能性。Mr Moore’s research has explored how advances in robotics, autonomous systems and electric propulsion can facilitate new kinds of small aircraft.摩尔的研究探寻了机器人技术、自控系统及电气前进方面的变革如何需要带给新型小型飞行器。In his LinkedIn profile, Mr Moore said his research into unmanned aerial systems and personal air vehicles had the potential to “facilitate a change in aviation that within the next 20 years could be quite breathtaking in terms of impact and market cap”. In a research paper published while at Nasa, he explained: “A zero emission, highly efficient, highly reliable, ultra-low noise VTOL capability would be a game changer compared with existing close proximity flight capabilities, for both unmanned and manned applications.”摩尔在自己的领英(LinkedIn)概述中写到，他对无人空中系统和个人飞行器的研究有可能“带给航空技术的改变，这种改变未来将会在未来20年产生十分极大的影响力和市场价值”。

在一篇他供职NASA期间公开发表的论文中，他说明说道：“与现有的短距离飞行中能力（无论是无人还是载人飞行器）比起，零排放、高效率、高可靠性、近于低噪声的横向民航机能力将沦为游戏规则的颠覆者。”Such a disruptive approach would naturally appeal to Uber, which has already brought sweeping changes to the taxi industry and is credited by some with accelerating a decline in car ownership. Uber is already investing in self-driving cars, striking partnerships with Volvo and Daimler, as well as autonomous trucks through last year’s acquisition of Otto.这种颠覆性路径对优步具备天然吸引力，它不仅早已给出租车行业带给全面变化，还被有些人指出促成汽车保有量加快上升。优步已投资于自动驾驶汽车，并与沃尔沃(Volvo)和戴姆勒(Daimler)创建合作关系，去年还通过并购奥托(Otto)投资自动驾驶卡车领域。Uber in its white paper last year proposed taking that work to another level, envisioning a system of “vertiports” and “vertistops” for transport between suburbs and cities and eventually within cities themselves.在去年公布的白皮书中，优步明确提出要将这方面的工作提高至另一高度，未来发展了在郊区与城市间、最后在市内创建由“横向民航机机场”和“横向民航机站点”包含的交通运输系统。

“On-demand aviation has the potential to radically improve urban mobility, giving people back time lost in their daily commutes,” it wrote. “Uber is close to the commute pain that citizens in cities around the world feel. We view helping to solve this problem as core to our mission and our commitment to our rider base. Just as skyscrapers allowed cities to use limited land more efficiently, urban air transportation will use three-dimensional airspace to alleviate transportation congestion on the ground.”“按须要航空服务有可能彻底提高城市的机动性，节省人们浪费在日常通勤上的时间，”白皮书写到。“优步自知世界各地城市居民的通勤伤痛。我们将帮助解决问题这一问题视作我们愿景和对乘客允诺的核心。

正如摩天大楼可让城市以更高效率利用受限的土地，城市空中交通系统将利用三维空域减轻地面上的交通拥堵。”Despite this Jetsons-like future vision, many technological hurdles are yet to be overcome, ranging from power requirements and noise to finding safe places for the flying cars to land.虽然优步刻画了类似于《杰森一家》(The Jetsons)的未来愿景，但是从动力市场需求、噪声到为飞行中汽车找寻安全性降落场所，仍有许多技术障碍尚待解决。

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