Lifeboat Foundation

For an invited competition, Pickard Chilton and ARUP collaborated on the concept design for a Mega-Skyport – Uber’s vision for a next-generation urban aviation transport system. Dubbed “Sky Tower,” the project is intended to facilitate at least 1000 vehicle arrivals and 1000 departures per hour, with each vehicle accommodating up to five passengers.

Once the objective of the desired throughput was resolved, Pickard Chilton and ARUP endeavored to create an elegant yet highly engineered and sophisticated work of architecture that would support and augment the Uber brand. Due to the multi-faceted kit-of-parts and adaptability of the individual module, it can be applied both vertically and horizontally to suit any given context.

While the Sky Tower is conceptual, it is not science fiction. Based on a pragmatic and research-driven approach, the Sky Tower concept delivers to Uber a modular, extensible and sustainable solution that supports their vision for the future of intra-urban transportation.

Roadways clogged by commercial vehicles and intense competition for affordable housing are imposing costs on prosperous cities and their most vulnerable residents.

Cities are the hubs of the emerging digital economy, attracting knowledge workers with higher pay and alluring lifestyles. One consequence of this concentrated prosperity is rising rents and a scramble for housing that places disadvantaged citizens in peril—as seen in the increasing rates of homelessness in cities such as Seattle. More people living in urban cores also means more commercial vehicles are needed to serve them, which is fueled by a surge in online deliveries. The resulting congestion is burdening cities with surprisingly high costs. The social stresses of the new growth should be on your radar.

Many people in tech point out that artificial narrow intelligence, or A.N.I., has grown ever safer and more reliable—certainly safer and more reliable than we are. (Self-driving cars and trucks might save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.) For them, the question is whether the risks of creating an omnicompetent Jeeves would exceed the combined risks of the myriad nightmares—pandemics, asteroid strikes, global nuclear war, etc.—that an A.G.I. could sweep aside for us.

Thinking about artificial intelligence can help clarify what makes us human—for better and for worse.

Police cars might soon be able to track your face.

Elon Musk’s vision of future public transport needs to become a reality now! 🚊.

Silicon Valley’s Drive.ai is starting a pilot program to ferry office workers around a small area of Frisco, with vehicles that can “chat” with passers-by.

This hacked EEG machine is learning how to read your mind.

Life is moving faster and faster. Just about everything—transportation, weapons, the flow of information—is accelerating. How will decisionmakers preserve our personal and national security in the face of hyperspeed?

Virgin Hyperloop One and trade logistics company DP World have created a new cargo brand “built for an on-demand world.”