flying cars are here
AUTONOMOUS AERIAL VEHICLE TO COME INTO SERVICE IN JULY
dubai — It won’t just be blue skies that Dubai residents will be gazing up to this summer. Instead, they’ll be staring up in awe at the city’s new ‘flying cars’.
On Monday, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced it had successfully carried out the test run of an Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV), which will begin operations as soon as July this year.
The egg-shaped passenger-carrying drone is capable of transporting one person up in the air — but with a weight-load restriction in place, those weighing more than 100kg need not apply.
Measuring 3.9m x 4m x 1.6m (length, width and height, respectively), the impressive machine has a maximum cruising height of 3,000 feet.
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dubai — The future of mobility is now up in the skies — literally.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced at the World Government Summit on Monday that it had successfully carried out the test run of an Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) capable of carrying a human up in the air.
Not just that: this ‘flying car’ is all set to begin operations in July this year. “The future is now in the making. Our talk about autonomous vehicles has become a reality. It is now high time to move to autonomous aerial vehicles,” declared Mattar Al Tayer, RTA director general and chairman of the board of executive directors, on the second day of the summit.
“The trial run of the first AAV is in implementation of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world,” said Al Tayer.
He added that the AAV — branded as EHANG184 manufactured by Chinese company EHANG — is in line with Dubai’s Self-driving Transport Strategy “aimed at transforming 25 per cent of total individual trips in Dubai into self-driving trips using various modes of transport by 2030.”
“The successful operation of AAV is considered a big step towards innovative and smart mobility solutions for reducing city traffic congestions,” Al Tayer pointed out. The actual ‘flying car’ was put on display at the three-day WGS. A video of EHANG184 flying over Burj Al Arab was shown at the conference. EHANG184 is auto-piloted, directed and monitored via a command centre. Inside is a touchscreen which a passenger can use to select preset routes and destination. There is no need for a key ignition as the AAV starts automatically and cruises to the set destination. It’s designed to operate under all climatic conditions unless there is a thunderstorm and is fitted with accurate sensors with a very lowerror threshold and can resist vibrations and extreme temperatures, according to the RTA.
The communication between the AAV and the ground control center will run under 4G data network. Al Tayer noted that Dubai’s strategy is to incorporate all public transport mode such as trains, buses, trains, marine transit and taxis, as well as private vehicles.
“We anticipate that the percentage of trips that will be made by the driverless Dubai Metro to reach 12.2 per cent by 2030 compared with 8.8 per cent in 2016.