If Ehang has its way, we'll ditch our cars and buy fully autonomous manned drones instead. Here's what it's all about.
Car makers took over the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas this year like never before. The hot topics were connectivity and autonomous driving. But are cars, even those that can completely drive themselves, already more or less obsolete? That's what Ehang, a Chinese company, has in mind for the not too distant future, as it revealed its '184' model in Vegas, the world's first passenger-carrying drone.
Ehang calls the 184 an AAV (Autonomous Aerial Vehicle) and that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about it. The design isn't all that dissimilar to the hordes of camera drones now on the market, with one crucial difference - this one has a cabin, which is designed to hold a real live person. Yes, in flight. Want's more, as the name suggests, it's completely autonomous. The major reason for that is so anyone can use it, not just those with a pilot's licence. However, for the same reason, there's no manual override...
Take a look through the galleries and you'll see that the 184 is powered by a combination of eight propellers, suspended on four retractable arms. Every single component has been designed, developed and constructed by Ehang to their own specifications so there's nothing off the shelf here. The battery pack takes four hours to recharge and then allows up to 23 minutes of autonomous flight at speeds of up to 100km/h and an altitude of 3,400 metres.
So how do you use it? Well, Ehang has spent as much time on the 184's software and control algorithms as it has the bespoke hardware, and it looks impressive. The passenger sits in and chooses their destination via a touchscreen tablet and the drone does the rest. Those that currently endure long commutes in stop-start traffic may be very interested, but don't reach for your cheque books just yet. Let's set aside the likely €270,000 starting price for a moment; we don't believe there is legislation in Ireland (or many other countries) to cover use of autonomous passenger-carrying drones. The closest there is here are UAVs (Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles), but they're strictly controlled and come with regulations that couldn't be applied to the Ehang 184.
Still, makes you think, doesn't it?