Uber has announced that it will hire NASA's former advanced aircraft engineer Mark Moore to be the company’s director of engineering for aviation.

The 30-year veteran of the space agency will lead and work on Uber’s flying-car project, dubbed Uber Elevate. With his expertise in using electric motors to get a vehicle airborne, he will extend aid to Uber in executing an expansive white paper it released in October 2015 on developing VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicles. 

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Moore’s ultimate factor in joining Uber is the company’s vision of making a flying commuter transit service real. Uber has not built its VTOL craft yet, but it only aims to develop the technology that would be integral to the prototype of flying. The technology includes figuring out how to guarantee battery life and limit noise pollution.

Uber’s goal for these vehicles is it to operate it autonomously summoned via an app on a passenger’s phone. There will be a bunch of designs to operate this type of vehicle but with the help of human pilots for now, according to Moore.

“Uber continues to see its role as an accelerant-catalyst to the entire ecosystem, and we are excited to have Mark joining us to work with manufacturers and stakeholders as we continue to explore the use case described in our whitepaper,” said Nikhil Goel, Uber’s head of product for advanced programs.

According to Moore, there will be many hurdles along the way while building the technology for VTOL craft. To get low prices for parts, the company such Uber need to independently negotiate with suppliers. Moreover, they need to lobby politicians for more lenient air-traffic controls and to certify aircraft vehicles.

Hiring Moore is symbolic for Uber because it has a goal of proving that the company is not just a ride-sharing platform, but an advocate of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Moore has left NASA and there is one more year before he is qualified for retirement and therefore able to receive a larger pension and free healthcare. Uber did not disclose how much they offered Moore to leave NASA right away.

Uber is not the only company that is interested of the concept of VTOL. Google co-founder Larry Page created two companies – Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk. Other companies joining the quests are Joby Aviation, Terrafugia and AeroMobil.