CES 2016: Why Remote Control A Drone When You Can Fly In One
As the drone market continues to grow, one company is thinking bigger than building remote-controlled drones from the ground, its thinking you should pilot one from the inside. Ehang, a Chinese drone maker, has built a 500 lb. drone that you can program with an app to transport you to your destination. Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, the Ehang 184 drone can travel 62 MPH for nearly a 23-minute trip. It can carry a person up to 220 pounds — sorry, big guys.
How it works is you plan your trip by picking your destination on an app, the drone takes off, and there you go. A safety system is in place that will protect the occupant should anything on the Ehang fail. It will either go into hover mode or find the nearest safe landing spot.
The Ehang 184 looks just like the classic drone we’re all used to seeing: four arms, eight propellers and eight motors. It also has onboard weather sensors make sure the occupant is safe in case of a storm. If a severe storm is occurring, the sensor will not allow the Ehang to take off until conditions are safe.
The sad thing thus far is that the Ehang 184 is not legal in the United States. The Ehang 184 has completed 100 test flights with a person on board, but it will still need to qualify with the FAA. According to what CFO Shang Wen Hsiao told Mashable, they’ll need 28 hours of flight time to check to see if it’s worthy of flying our skies.
I guess it’ll be a little while before we can all jump in our drones and fly away like we’re in some futuristic movie, but considering all the tests have gone so well and Ehang is already in talks with the FAA, that future might not be far off… just be ready to drop $200,000-$300,000 for one of them.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post,UPROXX,BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com