Cars which are not only driverless but can also fly may still seem like a far-future concept to many of us. But for the city of Dubai, the future is coming a lot sooner, this summer in fact.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced that autonomous aerial vehicles (AAV) will be trialled in the city with a summer start date currently projected. The driverless flying vehicles planned to be used are called the Ehang 184 and have been created by the Chinese firm Ehang.
The Ehang 184 comes with a touchscreen which the passenger can use to view nearby destinations on a map in the form of dots. The vehicle has preset routes and the passenger can select which of the potential destinations they want to travel to. The vehicle is then meant to automatically take off, travel to the set destination and then land in a specific spot.
The RTA and Ehang have already collaborated to conduct the first test run of the autonomous aerial vehicle recently during the World Government Sumit in Dubai.
Smaller than most modern day city cars and weighing just 250kg (without a passenger onboard), the Ehang 184 is electrically powered, take one to two hours to charge and can cruise at a maximum height of 3,000 feet.
The AAV is designed to fly for maximum of 30 minutes at a maximum cruising speed of around 99mph. When the AAVs are trialled properly in Dubai, they are likely to travel at about 62mph in the air.
The director general and chairman of the RTA, Mattar Al Tayer, said: “The AAV exhibited at the summit is not just a model; it is a real version that we have already experimented the vehicle in a flight in Dubai sky. The RTA is making every effort to start the operation of the AAV in July 2017”.
A ground-based centre will monitor and control the entire operation when it launches in Dubai.
