Gizmos & Gadgets: Chinese Company Builds Passenger Carrying Drone

January 8, 2016 – It’s my birthday today and I was looking for the perfect “me gift.” So I went shopping for gadgets coming from news announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Look what I want to get? My own personal passenger drone quadcopter. It’s called the Ehang 184.

If you thought autonomous cars were cool, you’ll love this all-electric, four-armed, eight-propeller drone. It is the air equivalent to the Google autonomous vehicle (AV). An Uber for the air. Call for one on your smartphone and arrives sans pilot. Sit inside and using your smartphone type in your destination and sit back to enjoy the ride. For anyone who always wanted to fly solo, here’s your opportunity without needing a pilot’s license.

The model designation “184” refers to its most visible characteristics: room for 1 passenger, and 8 propellers extending from 4 arms. The Ehang 184 navigation software plots the fastest and safest route to your requested destination. On the way its programmed collision avoidance and emergency hover mode ensure that you are kept safe the entire way. The Ehang does self diagnosis throughout the flight to ensure should it encounter a problem it can safely land. In addition the operating system is backed up by multiple levels of redundancy, and encrypted to ensure no hacker can hijack you in mid flight.

The passenger payload is 100 kilograms (220 pounds). Top speed reaches 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour and range distance per flight is 16 kilometers (10 miles) on a single charge. And when done the 4-armed copter folds up as seen in the image below.

The company plans to start selling the Ehang 184 in the United States once it gets FAA approval. The service will include a command centre employing up to 300 to integrate all flights with local air traffic control operations.

In Canada it will need a green light from the Transportation Safety Board. Then I can hardly wait to try it out. Talk about “way cool.”