The Future is here- Drone Taxis to take-off in Dubai

Posted on February 18, 2017

If you find traffic is bit of a problem in your city and transporting from one place to another takes several hours? You should move to Dubai this summer if you want to skip the traffic problems.

Dubai authorities have announced that there will be introducing a Single-passenger Quad-Copters which will ferry VIPs around the desert city via automated flight routes.

Road and transportation authorities of Dubai had declared that the city will begin an aerial taxi service this summer at World Government Summit which took earlier this week in Dubai.

His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, King of Dubai had announced by 2030 he wanted 25% of the passenger trips in the city to be made by driverless vehicles.

Description of the Drone:

The passenger drone demo model which blew everyone minds at the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 – Ehang 184 Personal Flying Vehicle (PFV), is a huge Quad-Copter. The Pilotless egg-shaped drone will transport you across the city and is in fact manufactured by the same Chinese company that produces the different variety of hi-tech drones with cutting edge technology.

The drone is made of Carbon Fiber and Ariel Aluminium Alloys which are lighter and stronger.
The net weight of the drone is 240 KG.
It can carry only a single Passenger who’s weight is bellow 100 KG and has luggage space for 18-inch suitcase.
The maximum range of the travel is 50 KM (31 Miles).
Top speed of the drone is 100 MPH and average speed is 30 MPH.
It has inbuilt touch-screen controls which provide information about speed, distance, weather and many other.
The drone is monitored from the ground in a specialized command center.
It has a battery capacity of 17KW and completely chargers within an hour via fast charging.
For any scenarios, the drone has a “FAIL-SAFE” system which will land to nearest and safest place if anything malfunctions or Disconnects.

The RTA and Aviation Assosication of Dubai have started examine the drone and hope to initiate the service by summer. Already eight of the drones have been flown around Dubai for the tests.

Speaking at World Government Summit, Mattar al-Tayer, Head of Dubai’s transportation agency said that “I am glad to inform you that hopefully we will able to have these drones available starting from July 2017. This is not only a model; we have actually experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai’s skies.”

Not only Dubai, last summer when the Ehnag introduced it first PFV at CES 2016, Las Vegas have also announced about the using Ehang as a part of the transportation facility.

Prior to this, in October 2016 the city signed a deal with Los Angeles-Based Hyper Loop — A vacuum tube like structure, through which vehicle pods hurtle at speeds faster than airliners, between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates capital.