Unlike its initial vision, this one doesn’t have complicated rotating nacelles such as a tilt-rotor, which swivels in-flight to transition from vertical lift to forward movement. To prove it’s serious, Uber made this concept-the third of its kind-simpler and more realistic. Anything too wildly different would need different landing or charging infrastructure, or perhaps just make it incompatible with the network. Each company is working on that now, but Uber hopes to unify their efforts with its concept, so it gets the vehicle it needs. No existing planes and helicopters can boast that full range of skills. In particular, that’s electric propulsion, allowing for multiple short-hop trips and a fast turn-around time, and minimizing noise. Initially, they’ll have a human pilot, but eventually, they should be autonomous. A single charge will be good enough for 60 miles of range, and Uber expects the thing to need just five minutes to top up the batteries between flights. The concept is supposed to cruise at between 150 and 200 miles per hour, up to 2,000 feet above the ground.

No need for extra steps or worrying about people exiting on the wrong side into an active landing pad. There’s just one door, on one side, to simplify ground operations. At the very back, where the tail would be on a conventional plane, a propeller faces forwards, ready to power horizontal flight. On top of each, and atop two smaller, even farther outboard pods, sit stacked rotors, which provide the electric vertical lift for takeoff and landing.

The design, reminiscent of a catamaran, features streamlined nacelles suspended high on each side, on slender supports. The concept is all-electric, and seats four people plus a pilot, in single file in a slim, cylindrical body with large windows. Uber is among the most fervent believers, and today the company revealed the vehicle it hopes will realize this congestion killer: the aspirationally-if not inspirationally-named Common Reference Model. If you trust the folks with their eyes tilted upward and their hands waving in the air, flying taxis could be a traffic panacea, leveraging the third dimension to make room for everyone.

Flying uber in dallas