Don’t worry if you do not recognize the name EHang, your not alone. With this new passenger carrying drone EHang 184 on display at CES I don’t think it will be long before many know who these guys are!

The Guangzhou, China based company unveiled the EHang 184 during CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center to great amazement. It has a body like a small helicopter but has 4 arms with 2 propellers on each arm in a similar layout to most quad-copters drones on the market. The unit is designed to fly 1,000 to 1,650 feet off the ground with a maximum altitude of 11,500 feet and a top speed of up to 63 mph. The drone is electric being able to fully charge in 2 hours and can carry 220 pounds while flying for 23 minutes at sea level. The cockpit can hold a single person plus a small bag and comes equipped with air conditioning and a light in the cockpit.

Making this unit truly a drone the passenger need only plot their flight plan then give one of two commands “take off” and “land”. These commands can be sent to the device by a single click on your Microsoft Surface tablet. After the unit has landed it is designed such that its rotors can be folded in to the unit and it is designed to fit in a standard parking spot.

With a price tag of $200,000 to $300,000 USD it is not for your average person… YET! but as with all technology it will becomes smaller, faster and more affordable as more iterations of the device are created. According to Chief Marketing Office Derrick Xiong the vehicle has been flowing more than 100 times at low altitudes in a forested area around Guangzhou. Several of the flights of the EHang 184 have been with a passenger on board. According to Xiong the quad-copter design is much safer for human transportation as even if 3 of the 4 arm’s are disabled, knocking 6 of the 8 rotors out, it can still spiral to the ground for a rough landing. I am sure it would still be a real bad day, and an expensive one, but you would still be alive!

The company raised $42 million in capital to develop this unit last year which followed $10 million in capital raised the year before. We hope this trend can continue because WE WANT OUR OWN PERSONAL DRONE CHARIOT!

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