Uber just unveiled its ambitious flying taxi plan ' but it will have a lot of competition (GOOGL)

Uber just revealed new details about its flying taxiproject.At a Tuesday conference in Dallas, Uber revealed it will demo the futuristic transport system in 2020 with the help of partners like Embraer and Aurora Flight Sciences. It's not the first time Uber has announced its intention to enter the realm of science fiction; the ride-hailing service released a white paper for its Uber Elevate plan in late October.Uber, along with most companies in the space, aren't releasingthe flying cars you saw in "Back to the Future." Rather, the majority are pursuingelectric, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircrafts for shorter urban commutes.Like the name suggests, these are vehicles that can take off without needing a runway.But competition is mounting when it comes to the flying-car moonshot ' here are 6 companies working on their own flying taxi projects:SEE ALSO:Airbus is building a high-speed flying taxi fleet so you never have to sit in traffic again1. Uber's announcement comes just one day after Kitty Hawk, a project backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, took the wraps off its VTOL aircraft. The fully electric aircraft can only fly over water.The Kitty Hawk Flyer weighs 220 pounds and relies on 8 rotors to fly. The startup is offering a $2,000 discount to those who pay $100 now to get on the wait-list, but a final price for the vehicle has yet to be released.The vehicle can travel a maximum of 15 feet above the water at 25 mph. Kitty Hawk's CEO is Sebastian Thrun, the founder of Google's self-driving-car project and cofounder of Udacity.Page has invested $100 million in Kitty Hawk and its other division, Zee.Aero, according to Bloomberg.A prototype of Zee.Aero's aircraft was spotted in the wild in October.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Click here to read full news..