Passenger-Carrying Drone Gets Symbolic Approval For Test Flights In Nevada (theverge.com) 59
The Verge reports: "Chinese company Ehang caught our eye at CES earlier year, with the firm unveiling an autonomous quadcopter prototype it said was capable of ferrying human passengers without a pilot. We were wary of these unproven claims, but Ehang is obviously forging ahead with the vehicle. The company recently reached an agreement with Nevada's governor's office to develop the Ehang 184 at the state's FAA-approved UAV test site. However, this news should be taken with a pinch of salt: the Ehang 184 still isn't approved for testing by the FAA itself, and the company has yet to show a fully working prototype." Submitter kheldan adds this commentary: This should put you drone advocates' and self-driving car advocates' faith in your ideals to the test: Would you step into one of these and let it fly you away somewhere? I wouldn't!
Ehang says it plans to begin testing at the FAA-approved site some time later this year. Some of the difficulties it will have to face include creating an autonomous navigation system that can detect small obstacles like power lines, creating and regulating fixed paths for air travel, and managing the limitations of battery life (Ehang claims the 184 has a maximum flight time of 23 minutes).
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Parachute (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this would be a good use-case for an airframe parachute http://cirrusaircraft.com/innovation/airframe-parachute/ [cirrusaircraft.com].
Re:Solved a problem that doesn't exist (Score:4, Insightful)
23 minutes of flight time can get you to many more places than 23 minutes of drive time in San Fransisco, New York City, and Los Angeles.