Buckle up, flying cars are poised to take off

Ehang's Chief Executive Officer Hu Huazhi said in a statement in February: "None of the traditional flying vehicles can achieve the goal of fully autonomous flying, so they are still far away from common people. But our successful flight means the scenes that we used to see only in sci-fi movies are now very close to common people."

The company said the drone has been tested more than 1,000 times and is designed to withstand gales with wind speeds of up to 50 km/h. But each Ehang 184 costs a reported $200,000 to $300,000.

Last year, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, announced a plan to cooperate with Ehang to develop self-flying taxis to transport people across the city.

Ehang cofounder Derrick Xiong said at the time, "The drone can help people to avoid traffic on the ground, but in other applications we can always think about emergency rescue, or we can transport patients to the hospital, or we can do tourism－you know, fly from one island to another."

Analysts believe that flying cars and air taxis that ferry people to and from work, airports and between cities will be commonplace within the next two decades.

In February, Airbus released a video of the first successful test flight of its eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) autonomous drone.

Although it only hovered in the air for 53 seconds, the fact that its eight rotors were powered entirely by electricity was a landmark for the manufacturer of gas-guzzling commercial aircraft.

However, Ehang is considerably more advanced than most of its competitors, including Airbus. It is already test-flying drones with passengers who simply mark their destination on a map while the drone creates and executes a flight plan.

At the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain in July, Boeing announced it was setting up a new division to tap into what it described as "the growing market of autonomous flight".

To be called Boeing Next, it will work in partnership with other companies as it looks to "build unmanned vehicles, resolve air traffic control and help model infrastructure on the ground", the company said in a statement.

The development of flying vehicles is going to arrive in the next few years, Boeing said, adding that transportation in the future will need to be "multi-modal".

The aerospace giant also announced that it has embarked on a new partnership with the US artificial intelligence company Spark-Cognition.

Boeing said the collaboration will use blockchain technology and AI to develop an air traffic management system that can track an unmanned vehicle as it flies. The system would also allocate traffic routes and corridors.

Amir Husain, founder and CEO of SparkCognition, said the urban aerial transportation market has been estimated to be worth $3 trillion, "which represents the largest new market in our lifetime".

"The world's No 1 aviation leader partnering with the world's most innovative industrial AI company means that unparalleled experience in safety, innovation, scale and reliability will be brought to bear to address this monumental opportunity."