Flying Cars for Personal Transportation: George Yan and the EHang 184

by DerdriuMarriner

The April 2016 issue of Popular Mechanics covers the EHang 184 as personal transportation in flying cars, a prediction in the magazine’s April 1906 issue.

Flying Cars Are Not Best Vaporware That Never Was

Flying cars are looking very unlike the “best vaporware” that never gets off the ground from consumer electronics shows, according to an article published for the April 2016 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Cars as personal transportation modes that fly at low levels above the ground no longer belong to the dream world that never translates into practical reality. Alexander George, author of “The Fantastical, Highly Questionable, But Totally Exciting Future of the Flying Car,” considers the progression of drones from unmanned to manned vehicles. He describes a likely prototype at the annual Consumer Electronics Show held Jan. 6 to 9, 2016, in the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada.

The electric-motored, 5-foot (1.52-meter-) high EHang 184, with an 18-foot (5.49-meter) wingspan and an emergency landing autopilot, enables one passenger to reach destinations 23 minutes away.

*****

Email: [email protected] ([email protected] outside US)
Physical Address: EHang US, 1235 Radio Road, Suite 200, Redwood City, CA 94056
Telephone: +1 888-800-7056 (Canada, Mexico, US Customer Support PST 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday)
Website: http://ehang.com

*****

"How Will the Future Family Live and Dress?" in Vogue's April 2016 issue envisions a "future perfect" that includes EHang184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle and Faraday Future FFZERO1 concept car in family transport fleet.

image by Mert and Marcus (Mert Alaş and Marcus Piggott)
image by Mert and Marcus (Mert Alaş and Marcus Piggott)

Flying Cars Behave Much Better Than Unmanned Drones

 

Chevy, Ford, Intel, Mercedes-Benz, Netflix, Oculus, Samsung and 1,430 other company displays fill the Center’s 2.3 million-square-foot (213,676.992-square-meter) floor space under mile- (1,609.344-meter-) high fluorescent lights.

EHang, whose main testing facility is in Guangzhou, China, gives the show’s crowds a prototype displayed without battery-operated functionality but with air-conditioned cockpit and four-point harness. Its prototype for flying cars has an equal number of electric motors and of rotor propellers that are distributed evenly over the quadcopter base’s four arms. Pitching each arm’s set of a clockwise-rotating, upper rotor and of a counterclockwise-rotating, lower rotor at an angle that pushes air downward is responsible for lift.

An absence or a proliferation of regulations and a limitation or a void in software and technology sometimes jeopardize inventions between drawing boards and production lines. 

 

Alexander George, technology and cars editor at Popular Mechanics, writes about flying cars in the magazine's April 2016 issue.

West 30th Street Heliport, NY-9A, west side Manhattan, New York City
West 30th Street Heliport, NY-9A, west side Manhattan, New York City

In "The Fantastical, Highly Questionable, Totally Exciting Future of the Flying Car" (online March 15, 2016; April 2016 issue), Popular Mechanics senior editor Alexander George dates the magazine's first mention of flying cars to April 1906.

"Flying Auto the Latest Motor Car" (Popular Mechanics, vol. VIII, no. 4, April 1906, p. 416) describes combined aeroplane-automobile designed by M. Vina of Paris.
photo illustration by Zach Bush
photo illustration by Zach Bush

Flying Cars Can Be Considered For Now

 

The non-issuance of position papers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps flying cars from being illegal to drive by implication in the United States.

Experiences with autopilots for airplanes and experiments with robot co-pilots by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) lead researchers to doubt interference from hostile regulation. Mary Cummings, director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, mentions: “We’re really terrible drivers, and we’re really terrible pilots.” The former F-18 pilot notes: “The sooner we can get to an autonomous flying car, the safer we’ll be on the roads and in the sky.”

Alexander George, article author and associate editor covering technology, observes of Autopilot on typical Boeing 777’s flights: “Sensors and software handle everything down to the landing.” 

 

George Yan, EHang's co-founder and COO, remembers the levitating, mid-century concept car-like vehicle in his favorite animated sitcom, The Jetsons.

The Jetsons' aerocar had a transparent bubble top.
The Jetsons' aerocar had a transparent bubble top.

Flying Cars Do Not Block Driveways or Garages

 

George Yan, co-founder and chief operating officer at EHang, possesses software skills from his vice presidency for Microsoft’s cloud storage, server and Windows expansion in China. He questions the sustainable functionality of flying cars without sense and avoid (SAA) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) versions for identifying, navigating and sharing obstacle- and weather-related information. He revels in a future, three or five years away, of user routes mapped at local command-control centers in accordance with battery ranges and route safety. He says that, like many professionals in the personal air vehicle business, “my favorite cartoon was The Jetsons” because of the levitating, mid-century concept car-like vehicle.

Mr. Yan thinks presciently like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on Windows and Apples: “We have a dream of putting a passenger drone on every rooftop.” 

 

"EHANG 184 Launch Video from CES2016" (4:57)

Uploaded January 6, 2016, by Recode to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGd1Oy7Cw0

Acknowledgment

 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

 

Image Credits

 

"How Will the Future Family Live and Dress?" in Vogue's April 2016 issue envisions a "future perfect" that includes EHang184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle and Faraday Future FFZERO1 concept car in family transport fleet.
image by Mert and Marcus (Mert Alaş and Marcus Piggott): LaunchSquad @LaunchSquad, via Twitter March 24, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/LaunchSquad/status/713064167956058112

In "The Fantastical, Highly Questionable, Totally Exciting Future of the Flying Car" (online March 15, 2016; April 2016 issue), Popular Mechanics senior editor Alexander George dates the magazine's first mention of flying cars to April 1906.
"Flying Auto the Latest Motor Car" (Popular Mechanics, vol. VIII, no. 4, April 1906, p. 416) describes combined aeroplane-automobile designed by M. Vina of Paris.
photo illustration by Zach Bush: Popular Mechanics @PopMech, via Twitter March 15, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/PopMech/status/709831548296699904

George Yan, EHang's co-founder and COO, remembers the levitating, mid-century concept car-like vehicle in his favorite animated sitcom, The Jetsons.
The Jetsons' aerocar had a transparent bubble top.: The Jetsons @TheJetsons, via Facebook April 28, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/TheJetsons/posts/626330474111402/

"EHANG 184 Launch Video from CES2016" (4:57)
Uploaded January 6, 2016, by Recode to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGd1Oy7Cw0

EHang 184 is displayed at 48th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES2016), held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from Wednesday, January 6, to Saturday, January 9, 2016.
EHang 184 series is world's first electric autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) capable of flying a passenger; Friday, January 8, 2016: ETC-USC, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/92587836@N04/24358360065/

Mary "Missy" Cummings, director of the Human and Automony Lab (HAL) at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, since 2014, favors autonomous flying cars.
She sees greater safety in the air and on the road as a benefit of autonomous flying cars.
Encouragement for STEM Women, via Facebook June 30, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=850265858373344&id=845738085492788; via Facebook June 30, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=850265858373344&id=845738085492788&set=a.846083788791551

 

EHang 184 is displayed at 48th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES2016), held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from Wednesday, January 6, to Saturday, January 9, 2016.

EHang 184 series is world's first electric autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) capable of flying a passenger; Friday, January 8, 2016
EHang 184 series is world's first electric autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) capable of flying a passenger; Friday, January 8, 2016

Sources Consulted

 

“EHang 184: Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV).” EHang.com.

  • Available @ http://www.ehang.com/ehang184

George, Alexander. April 2016. “The Fantastical, Highly Questionable, But Totally Exciting Future of the Flying Car.” Photo Illustration by Zach Bush. Popular Mechanics.

  • Available @ http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a19708/future-of-the-flying-car/

Jetsons: The Movie. Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The Jetsons: The Complete First Season. Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection.

The Jetsons: Season 2, Volume 1. Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection.

The Jetsons: Season 2, Volume 2. Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection.

The Jetsons: Season 3. Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection.

The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. 

 

Mary "Missy" Cummings, director of the Human and Automony Lab (HAL) at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, since 2014, favors autonomous flying cars.

She sees greater safety in the air and on the road as a benefit of autonomous flying cars.
In her pre-academic career, "Missy" Cummings served in the U.S. Navy (1988-1999) as naval officer and military pilot.
In her pre-academic career, "Missy" Cummings served in the U.S. Navy (1988-1999) as naval officer and military pilot.
the end which is also the beginning
the end which is also the beginning

Jetsons: The Movie ~ Available via Amazon

Space-age family lives in the future where flying cars are commonplace.
The Jetsons

Me and my purrfectly purrfect Maine coon kittycat, Augusta "Gusty" Sunshine

Gusty and I thank you for reading this article and hope that our product selection interests you; Gusty Gus receives favorite treats from my commissions.
DerdriuMarriner, All Rights Reserved
DerdriuMarriner, All Rights Reserved
Updated: 10/24/2024, DerdriuMarriner
 
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DerdriuMarriner on 11/18/2019

WriterArtist, Thank you for visiting and caring about the birds. Me too, I care about what flying cars may do to all the bird and insect (such as globe skimmers and Monarch butterflies) air lanes.

WriterArtist on 11/18/2019

A fantasy coming true, although I have my doubts of traffic control and other viable stuff. However; they will definitely get the world decongested? Hope the flying cars do not end cluttering the space. For now, it is best to leave the space to our eco-friendly birds.

sandyspider on 08/08/2018

I wonder when and if we will see a flying car for every household. Sure price needs to go down.

DerdriuMarriner on 07/27/2018

katiem2, Thank you and Amen! Alexander George's article is convincing in its images and information. Traffic control pops up as a major concern, regarding bird lanes, high buildings and other drivers!

katiem2 on 10/05/2017

I want a flying car more and more, all we need is good traffic control.

DerdriuMarriner on 07/06/2017

blackspanielgallery, Well said! There's also the problem of coordinating lanes with drones and planes and keeping away from low-flying bird migration routes.

blackspanielgallery on 07/02/2017

I see many challenges. Storms can flip small aircraft if not properly tied down. What kind of anchoring system would these need? And, at a destination they would take a lot of parking space. Would accidents be like plane crashes with explosions? Nice idea, but much needs to be worked out before going to the public.

DerdriuMarriner on 03/10/2017

katiem2, Alexander George is someone I respect in technology-related articles so if he sees something in flying cars, I do too. That said, I also respect Elon Musk, who facetiously or seriously says that flying cars are just another thing that can fall out of the sky and hit one on the head!

katiem2 on 03/09/2017

Flying cars certainly would help solve the issue of the decaying roadways and bridges around our country. Its one idea!!! Great insightful article.

DerdriuMarriner on 03/07/2017

sandyspider, Alexander George's article is a wonderfully illustrative and informative introduction, review and update on the possibility of a flying car in front of every garage.


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