Floating vehicles zooming seemingly unhindered by gravity between skyscrapers used to be in the exclusive realm of science fiction.
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But the dream of flying over traffic is now closer to reality. The world’s first passenger drone, the EHang 184, made its debut public flight on Tuesday. Once passengers get into the small cabin and fasten their seat belts, the automated flight system takes over.
“All the traditional flying vehicles cannot achieve the goal of fully autonomous flying, so it’s still far away from being used in daily commuting,” said Hu Huazhi, CEO of EHang, the drone’s Chinese manufacturer.
Tuesday’s flight means the scenes that used to exist only in sci-fi movies "are now very close to common people,” Hu added.
EHang says the vehicle runs on electric batteries. It can carry one person weighing up to 100 kilograms at a time. The drone can cruise at an altitude of 500 meters and fly at a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour for 25 minutes.
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The company says the drone’s been tested over a thousand times and is designed to withstand moderate gales with winds of up to 50 kilometers per hour. But the biggest concern remains safety.
“We have special fail-safe systems that take over in the event of malfunctions, plus passengers can get the drone to stop and hover in place if needed," said Hu. "I believe this year we could get flying permits in 80 percent of the countries and regions around the world.”
Last year, the city of Dubai announced a plan to cooperate with EHang to develop self-flying taxis taking people across the city.
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Experts say self-flying vehicles can greatly reduce traffic congestion down the road and what’s more important is that they can be used for city services like emergency rescue.
EHang said the final commercial product will fly into the market, possibly within a year.
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country’s mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Wang Xiangnan was driving Wednesday along the highway in Guangdong province, a vital economic hub in southern China. At around 2 a.m., Wang saw several vehicles moving in the opposite direction of the four-lane highway and a fellow driver soon informed him about the collapse, local media reported.
Reacting swiftly, Wang, a former soldier, positioned his truck to block the highway, effectively stopping dozens of vehicles from advancing into danger, Jiupai News quoted Wang as saying. Meanwhile, his wife got out of the truck to alert other drivers about the situation, it said.
“I didn’t think too much. I just wanted to stop the vehicles,” Wang told the Chinese news outlet.
Wang’s courageous actions not only garnered praise from Chinese social media users but also recognition from the China Worker Development Foundation.
The foundation announced Friday that in partnership with a car company it had awarded Wang 10,000 yuan ($1,414). A charity project linked to tech giant Alibaba Group Holding also gave an equal amount to Wang, newspaper Dahe Daily reported. Wang told the newspaper he would donate the money to the families of the collapse victims.
The accident came after a month of heavy rains in Guangdong. Some of the 23 vehicles that plunged into the deep ravine burst in flames, sending up thick clouds of smoke.
About 30 people were hospitalized. On Saturday, one was discharged from the hospital, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The others were improving, but one remains in serious condition.
On Saturday, the Meizhou city government in Guangdong said in a statement that authorities would conduct citywide checks on expressways, railways and roads in mountainous areas.
The Chinese government had sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures following calls by President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party’s No. 2 official, Premier Li Qiang, to swiftly handle the tragedy.
The dispatch of Zhang, who is also a member of one of the ruling Communist Party’s leading bodies, illustrates the concern over a possible public backlash over the disaster, the latest in a series of deadly infrastructure failures.
In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers at the site of a collapsed section of a highway on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou, southern China's Guangdong Province on May 2, 2024. (Wang Ruiping/Xinhua via AP)
