View from the Cheap Seats is kind of an extension of the newsroom. Whenever our three regular reporters, Calvin Daniels, Thom Barker and Randy Brenzen are in the building together, it is frequently a site of heated debate. This week: Would you take a ride in one of the autonomous aerial vehicles (passenger drones) recently unveiled at the world’s largest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas this month.
Just a little bit longer
We have been waiting for them since the 1950s.
Flying cars. They are the holy grail of personal transportation, but have proved way more elusive than early predictors would have imagined.
And it is not just the technical problems of building something safe and easy to fly. The airspace regulatory model is a nightmare. Roads, cars and their drivers are naturally self-constrained by the two-dimensional space they operate in and are still extremely dangerous.
How do you deal with safety in three dimensions?
Chinese company EHang may have solved this problem. What they have created is not exactly the flying car envisioned in science fiction, but it may actually be practical. It is an autonomous aerial vehicle (passenger drone) that the passenger doesn’t have to fly. This means there is no need for pilot’s licences and routes can be strictly controlled by the regulatory authority.
The question before us, though, is would we take a ride in one. I am not ready, and neither do I think the world is, for everyone to be zipping around the skies in these things, but I think once they have a couple of generations of prototypes under their belts, I would consent to be a guinea pig under very strict controlled conditions.
- Thom Barker
Stop in the name of regs
Drones are all the rage these days.
Go to a farm conference and there is a high likelihood there will be a speaker discussing applications for drones in agriculture.
They are also seen as tolls in forestry, mine exploration, and dozens of other industry driven applications.
But is there a role for drones as passenger transport?
At least one company is thinking they will.
A Chinese company claimed a world first last Wednesday by unveiling a drone capable of carrying a human passenger.
Guangzhou-based Ehang Inc pulled the cloth off the Ehang 184 at the Las Vegas convention center during the CES gadget show.
The unit looks exactly as you might imagine, hi-tech and science fiction-like.
The concept is simple enough. You climb into the machine and it takes off with you as its payload.
Much has been made of Amazon.com working on drone delivery of packages, and in this version you are essentially the package.
The route is programmed and you sit back and enjoy the flight.
Personally I’m not a fan of flying to start with. The flights to and from two Royal Bank Cups with the Yorkton Terriers have been great for the hockey, but not particularly pleasing in terms of transportation.
So to think a drone trip to the office, or a disc golf course in the next town, isn’t real high on my list of want to try.
Of course at a few hundred grand a drone is a bit out of my price range, and I can’t see the office buying one, although we could do traffic reports over Broadway.
And, there is the small matter of government approvals too. The world of drones are already confusing regulatory authorities who are frankly far behind the existing tech. Passenger drones will only complicate things even more.
So I think I am safe from having to decide about trusting a computer programmed by another to fly me anywhere.
- Calvin Daniels
Don’t worry, be happy
So there’s this flying drone ‘car’ that has recently been unveiled to the world.
It’s basically a vehicle that a person can jump in and do absolutely nothing while traveling from point A to point B without worrying about having to control the vehicle yourself.
Instead, you’re just the passenger and someone else is controlling the vehicle, flying it to your destination without any input from you.
Doesn’t that sound amazing?
Well… It shouldn’t. Instead, it should sound very familiar.
Why? Because that’s exactly the same way airplanes operate!
You get in, strap yourself down onto your seat and then let someone else control the vehicle – in the air – all the way to your destination.
It’s not amazing, nor is it something new; it’s just smaller (oh, like a single engine Cessna? Well!).
So would I go for a ride in one of these flying drone cars? Why not? If it’s cheaper than an airplane ticket then it’s worth it. Would I be scared of crashing? No, because I’m not afraid of crashing in an airplane, so this flying car contraption isn’t a worry either.
My only concern is, would I get free peanuts?
-Randy Brenzen
