It’s rare for a product like this to live up to the hype but Ehang’s passenger drone might just be one of those products.
The Chinese company has released some astonishing test flight footage of its Ehang 184 drone and if we’re being honest it looks pretty remarkable.
To be clear, this is not CGI and yes those are actual human beings flying it.
Ehang has been putting the little 1/2 person drone through a gruelling set of tests including a high altitude flight (300ft), night flights and even trying to take-off it during a category 7 typhoon.
Incredibly, it passed all of them, and did so while looking remarkably stable.
“What we’re doing isn’t an extreme sport, so the safety of each passenger always comes first.” explains Ehang CEO Huazhi Hu.
Ehang has been putting the little 1/2 person drone through a gruelling set of tests including a high altitude flight (300ft), night flights and even trying to take-off it during a category 7 typhoon.
Incredibly, it passed all of them, and did so while looking remarkably stable.
“What we’re doing isn’t an extreme sport, so the safety of each passenger always comes first.” explains Ehang CEO Huazhi Hu.
While it will initially be self-driving, Ehang have designed the 184 to be easily flown by anyone with a simple tablet display and easy controls.
At the beginning it will, of course, simply be a toy for the rich but Ehang have much grander plans for the 184 and once they have built enough, want it to become as affordable as a normal car.
40 people have now flown in the Ehang drone including the CEO himself, demonstrating that it’s not only easy to fly, but just as safe as conventional helicopters.
The Ehang 184 is small electrically powered drone that uses eight contra-rotating blades to lift it off the ground.
While it doesn’t offer the range of say Airbus’ own self-driving drone, it can travel around 10-miles or the equivalent of 23 minutes of flight.