Ehang’s passenger-carrying drones look insanely impressive in first test flights
Two years ago, Chinese drone maker Ehang came to CES in Las Vegas and promised to build a completely autonomous, passenger-carrying quadcopter that would revolutionize mobility. Many of us in the tech community chortled under our breath, wondering if such a thing was even possible, let alone advisable. Today, the company released footage of its first piloted test flights in China — and color us impressed: this thing is no joke.
Ehang’s engineers put the quadcopter, dubbed the Ehang 184, through a battery of tests over the last several months, and with good measure. The company conducted over 1,000 test flights with human passengers, including a 984-foot (300-meter) vertical climb, a weight...