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RE: Driverless Taxi Drones Heading to Dubai
That's a really cool looking drone! An upside of it is that it doesn't have to deal with the same roadside artifacts that driverless cars have to deal with. Just changing altitude would already deal with any traffic problems. Some foreseeable problems here though are passenger safety and the energy the drones consume. All very fixable problems. Dubai is really taking advantage of the wealth afforded to it!
The passenger safety has been a big one in my mind. The Ehang company definitely seemed to put a lot of work and design to help on this with various systems like auto-landing with any issue and the ability to keep flying with only 4 of the 8 rotors going. But given enough time, something always seems to pop up causing a major problem that can't be handled.
I'd seen some sites asking for the inclusion of a parachute or some other kind of backup like that. I look forward to the day that when a 'flying car' stops working/powers down...it just hovers there instead of falling.
Even with the drones being all electric, I couldn't find anything on the actual power consumption from the batteries. I'm not sure if this was tested just yet or the company didn't want to release that.
Hopefully if Dubai makes this or other projects like the hyperloop work successfully, while saving money over time, they could catch on in other places.
Oh, a parachute is definitely a must. Like a life jacket should be to ferries. I like how they designed it like a drone instead of a car, so that it would be more stable. Maneuverability is always an issue, so at least it's a bit taken care of.
Yeah, the world is so gunshy when it comes to innovation sometimes. They always want proof that what they're spending money on really does what it's intended for. It's completely understandable. But, as it stands, the bold really are the ones who change the world. I hope they strive for more eco-friendly solutions for sustainability.
Bingo! There has to be plans for when things catastrophically fail. They seem to have taken good measure, but it's bound to happen eventually.
I'm with you there...that seems to be a part of the plans for Dubai with so many of their new projects being electric, but I still would need to research how they're actually generating that power right now or planned for the future.
I wouldn't be surprised if they will be the first ones to have a working hydrogen fusion reactor (0% carbon footprint woot!) The would really drop the mic with regard to innovations in power generation.