Dubai has been ahead of the curve since it started to rapidly expand in the 90’s. They have it all, from the world’s tallest building to islands built from nothing. Now they’re going to make every day citizens feel like Bond villains.
From July this year they are rolling out the world’s first taxi drones, which are basically a pod with eight propellers that can carry one person weighing up to 100kg’s. The thing that really takes it to the next level is that there are no controls in the cabin. That’s right, no controls. Step in, select your destination on a touch screen and you’re off.
The drones being used are Ehang 184’s and will be completely autonomous, with all data being fed back to a 24 hour control room at their headquarters.
Dubai claim that they will have a top speed of 100 km/h and have a range of around 50 kilometres.
It’s not like this is some mad pipe dream either, they have already begun testing and are aiming to have people in the air this July, “This is not only a model, we have actually experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai’s skies,” said Dubai’s Head of Transport, Mattar al-Tayer.
So if you fancy ripping along the skies like something out of the Jetsons, looks like this year’s holidays should be aimed at the UAE.
