No it won’t, sorry to get straight to the point admittedly it’s not a great way to start an article because we should be following the first principle of reporting. To drag the story out for as much as possible in order to nail those B2C verticals. Because we lack imagination we will get to the point. The super-drone in question was revealed last week at the Consumer Electronic Show, most popularly known as the CES tech show.
The 184 Personal Flying Drone was created by EHANG a Chinese maker of advanced consumer drones that cost around $500 dollars and up to $5,000 dollars for pro-grade models. Seems the Chinese are becoming specialists in drone technology and it seems their ambitions have grown, literally grown with the 184…
About the size of a micro car, the 184 Personal Flying Drone is as large as a drone can get. It seats only one and is able to carry a maximum load of 260 pounds. But it only has a 10 mile range which equates to around 23 minutes of flying time.
Thankfully it’s only a working prototype, a publicity stunt to create a bit of a media buzz for EHANG. The 184 PFD has fully automated controls meaning you just punch in a desired destination via your smartphone and it will fly.
The minimal physical controls are pertained to the take off, pause flight and land. During your journey you will have air-con, 4G Wifi and a little bit of room for storage. EHANG has more serious intent for the 184 despite our assertion that it is a publicity stunt.
Over the next few months EHANG will be undertaking basic low altitude flight tests. The 184 has a service altitude of 11,000 feet and a top speed of 60mph. EHANG says that in case of an emergency the 184 has a number of failsafe systems to prevent a crash.
At 11,000 feet we think we’ll stick to flying mini toy drones and let the next generation see just how good the 184’s fails safe system is. And another issue is the cost, EHANG estimate that if the 184 were ever to go into production it would cost around $250 dollars.
Yes that’s dollars… Jeepers. Check out the video below.
