Will you be using one of these flying taxis?

Uber planning self-flying drones

The Ehang 184, a passenger drone CREDIT: EHANG

James Titcomb writes at Telegraph,

If you summon an Uber in 10 years’ time, you will probably get a car that drives itself. But then again, you may not be travelling in a car at all.

The taxi-hailing app is working on technology that would allow airborne passenger drones to fly its users short distances around cities, it has emerged, raising the prospect of a future in which skylines are dotted with Uber aircraft shuttling commuters back and forth.

Read more here.

A bridge to the 21st century?

Rich Lowry writes at Real Clear Politics about why liberals hate Uber and other businesses of the sharing economy:

As a disrupter of sclerotic practices in the economy and government, the sharing economy is predictably the subject of a furious regulatory and legal counter-assault. Uber has been a target in cities around the country, and abroad.

...Presumably the CEOs of sharing-economy companies in the U.S. don’t have to worry about being hunted down and jailed (at least not until Bernie Sanders is president). But when Hillary pledged to “crack down on bosses who exploit employees by misclassifying them as contractors,” it was clear what she was talking about. She is signaling her intention to declare open season on innovators not to the liking of the regulatory-business complex.

One would think that new services that link up workers and customers in creative ways would be welcomed, not feared. But Democrats are increasingly the party of economic nostalgia. They still want that bridge to the 21st century; they just want to travel the other way.

Read more here.

Freedom, liberty, and Uber

James Lilek writes:

If the Right wants to free public schools from their century-old model, it’s just about hating unions. (Because Freedom.) If they object to the impact of the minimum wage, it’s just about hating workers. (Because Freedom.) If they object to the unsustainable drain of Social Security, it’s because they hate the old; if they object to socialized medicine it’s because they hate the sick; if they object to making nuns pay for late-term abortion it’s because they hate women.

If they hate taxis and want an alternative, well, because Freedom.

Whoa! At least they got that one right.

Go here to read why Lileks loves Uber.

thanks to Maggies Farm for linking to the Lileks post.