Must fly! Taxi drones ready for take off
The world’s most ambitious commercial drone project may achieve lift-off in Dubai with the launch of an ‘‘Uber for the skies’’ this summer.
The dream of a pilotless flying taxi has preoccupied entrepreneurs and engineers at EHang, in Guangzhou, southern China, for three years.
The authorities in Dubai said last week that the EHang 184 air taxi would operate from July.
‘‘We have experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai’s skies,’’ Mattar al-Tayer, the city’s transport director, said.
The aim of the Dubai smart transport strategy is to make one in four journeys driverless by 2030.
Promotional videos of the eightrotor single-seat ‘‘Dubai autonomous aerial vehicle’’ show test flights in the city and over desert.
A businessman is shown booking the Ehang 184 with his mobile. When it arrives he climbs inside and enters his destination on a tablet.
The drone, which is expected to cost about £200,000 (NZ$345,260), is designed for one passenger and limited luggage. It will carry a maximum total of 100kg for up to 23 minutes, flying at about 105kmh at a height of up to 500m.
It will be operated from a command centre on the ground. Although a go-anywhere service is envisaged, it may start with set routes for the tourism and entertainment markets.
All trials to date have been without passengers but Huazhi Hu, founder and chief executive of EHang, said his company would devote itself to ‘‘making EHang 184 into the safest fully automated means of aerial transport’’.
The company said that if a bird hit one of its propellers the EHang 184 could still fly, hover and land safely, and that the chance of all eight propellers stopping was lower than that of winning the lottery.
Some experts, however, remain sceptical.
‘‘I’d have to be taken on board kicking and screaming,’’ Steve Wright, lecturer in avionics at the University of the West of England, said.