Flying cars will soon be a reality in the skies of Dubai, starting July 2017. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced plans to launch driverless flying cars. According to Mattar al-Tayer, the Head of RTA, the agency wants to develop passenger-carrying drones as a way to move people around the United Arab Emirates’ biggest city. According to reports, the flights could begin as early as July 2017.
The giant human-carrying drone was developed by Chinese drone maker, EHang, which unveiled its invention at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday (Feb 13). Called 184, the drone is reportedly the first of its kind and a prototype was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year.
The 184 has a flight time of 23 minutes and is completely autonomous – which means all passengers need to do is enter their destination on a touchscreen in front of their seat and sit back. Reports suggest that although there is no way of controlling the egg-shaped craft remotely, the drone has the capability of landing in the nearest available area if something goes wrong mid-air.
George Yan, co-founder of EHang, said, “You know how it feels to sit in a Ferrari? This is 10 times better.” Many reports also suggest that Dubai isn’t the only city curious about giving this drone a go. The Las Vegas city of Nevada wants to take a gamble as well. In fact, the city was given the green light in June 2016 to test out the world’s first passenger drone. However, there has not been any major development on that front. Looks like Dubai is set to beat Nevada at this passenger drone game.
