Ride-hailing company Uber also want a piece of the action. They say drones like this are the “future of on-demand urban air transportation”. They recently poached NASA chief technologist Mark Moore to help them develop a drone taxi. And he claims it won’t cost the earth. Moore told the BBC that with three or four passengers sharing, it would be “very similar to what an UberX [car] costs today”.

So far so good. But naturally, a number of questions remain. On the technical side, there’s the problem of batteries. A 23-minute flight could get you across town, but how and where does the battery recharge?

And regulations are a challenge too. US authorities require aircraft to carry at least 20 minutes of spare fuel. If you only have 23 or even 30 in total, that leaves very little leeway. Control of access to flight paths will also need to be worked out.

Even if these issues are tackled successfully, there’s still the biggie: safety. Will passengers really be willing to put their lives in the hands of a flying robot? Winning the trust of the regulators and the public may take time. But when they do, well, the sky’s the limit.

词汇表 bumper-to-bumper （交通）非常拥堵的

congestion 堵车，交通堵塞

to take to the skies 冲上云霄

the race is on 竞争已经开始

viable 可行的，有望成功的

preserve （某类人群的）专利

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