When someone looks at today’s drones, one might think if they made it bigger, would it be able to carry a human. That question has now been answered by EHANG, a Chinese Company who has recently been showing live demo tests on YouTube. Dubbed as the EHANG 184 series, the quadcopter falls under AAV category which stands for Autonomous Aerial Vehicle.
This proves that personal mobility by air is coming soon and these latest successful tests prove it. It isn’t surprising because many of today’s robotic and AI experts come from China especially with the large global leader of drones, DJI hailing from there. Many more areas where AI and machine learning are used seem to stem from the large powerhouse of the East.
In the recent tests, one of the passengers included the company’s founder and CEO (Huazhi Hu) as well as the deputy mayor for Guangzhou, Wang Dong. This proves how confident they were of their product as more than 150 engineers have conducted thousands of test flights. Huazhi Hu has mentioned that safety is the utmost importance for the company.
Tests have shown that it can perform vertical climbs of up to 300m (the Petronas Twin Towers stands at 451m), cruising speeds of 130kmh and a load test of around 230kg or weight. The company is also in the midst of testing the two-seater AAV as well with a max load of 280kg.
