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A comment on Flying Taxis May Be Years Away, but the Groundwork Is Accelerating. Parent comment

Re:Flying Taxis May Be Years Away, but the Groundwork Is Acc... by FabHK on Sunday March 04, 2018 @03:10AM (#16513736)
Why do you think electric drones have taken off as toys and for filming etc, when remote controlled helicopters have been available for ages?

Because they have better properties for many use cases: much simpler mechanically, cheaper to operate, easier to control, etc. I’d also expect drones to be more reliable, but that remains to be seen.

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Re:Flying Taxis May Be Years Away, but the Groundwork Is Acc... by 908087 on Sunday March 04, 2018 @09:07AM (#16514764)
There's a problem here, though. Drones can't autorotate, and autorotation is kind of an important safety feature for helicopters carrying humans.
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Re:Flying Taxis May Be Years Away, but the Groundwork Is Acc... by FabHK on Sunday March 04, 2018 @11:41AM (#16515302)
Don't know about the (8-rotor) eHang, but the 18-rotor Volocopter remains fully controllable with 3 rotor failures (or more, if they're benignly distributed), and has a ballistic rescue chute in addition (which is hard to fit on a heli).

(Of course, you need a certain altitude for the BRS to kick in successfully, so low-level hover is a risk, just as with a helicopter.)

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