Chinese company unveils passenger drone prototype

A Chinese company claimed a world first on Wednesday by unveiling a drone capable of carrying a human passenger.

Guangzhou-based Ehang has raised more than $50 million (€45m) from venture investors and is taking on China’s leading drone maker DJI at a time when drone sales worldwide are soaring.

‘The 184 is evocative of a future we’ve always dreamed of and is primed to alter the very fundamentals of the way we get around’.

Once it goes into production, it will take off vertically (no need for a runway), and land similarly. No matter whether the eHang 184 takes off, or instead slides into the vast hangar of CES vaporware, the flight path over the next few months should be interesting. All of it is possible with just one click. Today at the CES 2016 EHang unveiled a personalized drone called EHANG 184.

An EHang spokesperson assured me that there’s multiple fail-safes in place to take over if there’s a specific failure, and there’s also a flight control center that monitors all of the vehicles in the sky and can intervene if necessary, similar to the flight control centers at airports.

If the EHang 184 is mass produced it will solve all traffic problems.

EHang said that they drone will be totally automated, meaning passengers will pre-input a destination, and have no aspect of human control during the flight.

Its foldable design solves the logistical and spatial issues that have constrained airplanes and other modes of air-travel from expanding into daily use.

The power of electricity: The 184 is 100 percent electric and doesn’t depend on fossil fuels, reducing our reliance on substances that can be environmentally damaging. The electric-powered vehicle is just under 5 feet tall, and the spec sheet for the 184 says it can carry a load of 120 kilograms, or 264 pounds.

For added comfort the craft even comes with air conditioning and a reading light and can be folded up when not in use to squeeze into a standard parking space.

EHang says the 184 AAV, which weighs 440 pounds and is 4-feet, 11-inches high, is created to fly at a maximum altitude of 11,480 feet, and can maintain an average cruising speed of 62 miles an hour.

As self-driving cars could potentially drive down the rate of vehicle-related deaths due to human error, EHang hopes to do the same for personal aerial transportation.