# Driverless flying taxi service set to launch in Dubai



## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

(CNN)Dubai has announced yet another pioneering initiative, but this time it's not the world's first rotating skyscraper or 3D printed office. It's a fleet of flying taxis.

Small enough to fit into a car parking space when folded up, the one-seater passenger drones made by Chinese company Ehang are set to start picking up passengers in July this year, according to Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA).

The electrically powered driverless drones -- named Ehang 184 -- have already been seen hovering above the sand dunes near the city's airfield during test flights.

"The 184 provides a viable solution to the many challenges the transportation industry faces in a safe and energy-efficient way," said Ehang founder and CEO Huazhi Hu when the vehicle was unveiled during the 2016 CES gadget show in Las Vegas.

"The 184 is evocative of a future we've always dreamed of and is primed to alter the very fundamentals of the way we get around."

Read the rest here.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

RamzFanz said:


> (CNN)Dubai has announced yet another pioneering initiative, but this time it's not the world's first rotating skyscraper or 3D printed office. It's a fleet of flying taxis.
> 
> Small enough to fit into a car parking space when folded up, the one-seater passenger drones made by Chinese company Ehang are set to start picking up passengers in July this year, according to Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA).
> 
> ...


Gross weight limit of 100 kilo's. I guess it won't work to well in the states considering all the fat asses, but mark my words about the Mexican Drug Cartel placing a large order of the Ehang 184's. 
Wall, what wall? We just now fly our drugs over your trillion dollar monument Mr. President.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

RamzFanz said:


> (CNN)Dubai has announced yet another pioneering initiative, but this time it's not the world's first rotating skyscraper or 3D printed office. It's a fleet of flying taxis.
> 
> Small enough to fit into a car parking space when folded up, the one-seater passenger drones made by Chinese company Ehang are set to start picking up passengers in July this year, according to Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA).
> 
> ...


All of that desert in Dubai( U.A.E. outskirts) and other middle Eastern countries ,a flying car may actually make sense there.



SEAL Team 5 said:


> Gross weight limit of 100 kilo's. I guess it won't work to well in the states considering all the fat asses, but mark my words about the Mexican Drug Cartel placing a large order of the Ehang 184's.
> Wall, what wall? We just now fly our drugs over your trillion dollar monument Mr. President.


They back catapults on trailers up to border fence now.
Medieval technology works fine.
They've been doing it over a decade.

Also drones have been employed a while now. Also" submarines " towed behind ships on fast detachable lines in case vessel is boarded.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

Jetson's, here we come  So the initial model will fit into 2 parking spaces and cost around $250,000. Who here thinks those initial models may be a target for thieves, or maybe held for ransom? "Hey Uber, for only 100k you can get your 250k toy back." Will they still pay ransom after #10, #20? What about using them for target practice, empty of course (we hope)?

Dubai is a city of 2.7 million. Watch this guy evade the question of "What if something gets in its path?"


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

This is a new product launch.

Of course it will have limitations.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

Hard to believe that devout Muslims will allow such infidel devices in their holy land. One would think the Bedouins would realize the value of a prototype "flying taxi" and how "appreciative" the owner might be when it was returned after an "accident".


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## Gung-Ho (Jun 2, 2015)

Look these people had flying carpets way back in the olden days so whats the big deal?


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

Gung-Ho said:


> Look these people had flying carpets way back in the olden days so whats the big deal?


The flying carpets of ancient legend were divinely inspired by Allah, not godless "self-driving cars", creations of infidel western technology, which are "obviously" subject to attack without mercy. It is no surprise that Disney's Aladdin series of movies left that part out when discussing flying carpets.
_________

*Solomon's Flying Carpet *by Sam Shamoun from *Fables and Legends of the Quran*

The Quran unapologetically states that Allah gave Solomon command over the winds by which he was able to travel a two-month journey in less than a day:

And WE subjected to Solomon *the violent wind. It blew, at his bidding, toward the land which WE had blessed*. And WE have knowledge of all things. S. 21:81 Sher Ali

And to Solomon WE subjected the wind; *its morning course was a month's journey and its evening course was a month's journey too*. And WE caused a fount of molten copper to flow for him. And of the jinn were some who worked under him by the command of his Lord. And WE said that whoever of them turned away from Our command, WE would make him taste the punishment of the burning fire. S. 34:12 Sher Ali

And (We made) the wind (subservient) to Sulaiman, *which made a month's journey in the morning and a month's journey in the evening*, &#8230; Shakir

The Muslim tradition says that Solomon use to travel on a carpet which was carried off by the winds! Renowned Sunni Commentator Ibn Kathir said regarding Sura 21:81:

He had a mat made of wood on which he would place all the equipment of his kingship; horses, camels, tents and troops, then he would command the wind to carry it, and he would go underneath it and it would carry him aloft, shading him and protecting him from the heat, until it reached wherever he wanted to go in the land. Then it would come down and deposit his equipment and entourage&#8230; (_Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged) (Surat Al-Isra', Verse 39 To the end of Surat Al-Mu'minun)_, by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaykh Safiur Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri [Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh, Houston, New York, London, Lahore; First Edition: July 2000], Volume 6, pp. 476-477)

And about Sura 34:12 he wrote:

Having mentioned the blessings with which He favored Dawud, Allah follows this by mentioning what He gave to Dawud's son Sulayman (Solomon), may peace be upon them both. He subjugated the wind o him, so that it could carry HIS CARPET one way for a month, then back again the next month. Al-Hasan al-Basri said, "He set out from Damascus in the morning, landed in Istakhar where he ate a meal, then flew on from Istakhar and spent the night in Kabil." Between Damascus and Istakhar is an entire month's travel for a swift rider, and between Istakhar and Kabul is an entire month's travel for a swift rider. (_Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged) (Surat Al-Ahzab, Verse 51 to the end of Surat Ad-Dukhan)_, Shaykh Safiur Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri [Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh, Houston, New York, London, Lahore; First Edition: September 2000], Volume 8, p. 70; capital emphasis ours)
______________

Of course, I never did understand how Solomon, a Jewish King, who ruled over the same land that is modern-day Israel, was so favored of Allah. Whereas "Little Satan", Israel is #2 on the Radical Islam Hit List, right after the "Big Satan", America.


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

The FAA will also never allow enough in the sky for it to ever become anything more than a novelty.


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

All fine and dandy, but once one of the suckers kills someone, and they will kill someone, it's history. I think this will happen when the world moves into anti-gravity machines, a long time in the future, when the technology is far more reliable than it is now, driverless flying machines will become a reality. So, who is the first crazy person that is going to ride in one of these things? Good luck.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

No doubt that flying-cars will be held to a different standard in the same way as present-day airline crashes. Will "drivers" need to be as skilled as present-day pilots? I do not think that a single fatality will kill the program, but I have no idea what the acceptable threshold will be.


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## dirtylee (Sep 2, 2015)

23 minute flight time
30 minutes charging
No controls or evasive maneuvers 
Only seats 1

No chance unless battery tech jumps a few generations in the next decade.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

dirtylee said:


> 23 minute flight time, 30 minutes charging, No controls or evasive maneuver, Only seats 1
> No chance unless battery tech jumps a few generations in the next decade.


Hybrid engines, part solar, part electric, part gas, and all available today, ready to be adapted to requirements of a 2-seat flying car. The "evasive maneuvers" are programmed into the software. Only one override control for immediate, emergency landing.


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