Dubai volocopter taxi drone test flight on Monday, September 25, 2017, for the world's first unmanned fly taxi service. This is an ambitious plan of the United Arab Emirates city to lead the Arab world in innovation.
The flying taxi developed by the German drone company Volocopter resembles a two-seat helicopter cabin under a large ring equipped with 18 propellers.
The drone did not carry passengers for its inaugural trial in an event designed for Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed.
Designed to fly without remote control and with a maximum 30-minute flight duration, and has a maximum speed of up to 100 km / hour, this drone comes with plenty of security in case of problems, such as spare batteries, rotor and, for worst-case scenarios, multiple parachutes.
Volocopter competes with over a dozen well-funded European and US companies. Each has a science-inspired fictional vision to create a new form of urban transport that is a cross between a driverless electric car and a plane that takes off and lands vertically for short distances.
Participants include Airbus, who intends to launch a flying taxi by 2020; Kitty Hawk, a company backed by Google founder Larry Page; and Uber.
"The implementation is done by using your smartphone app, and ordering the Volocopter to the next voloport near you.The Volocopter will come and autonomously pick you up and take you to your destination," said CEO Florian Reuter.
"The drone is already capable of flying based on GPS tracks, and we will apply full sensory capabilities, also addressing unknown obstacles on the road," he added. He said that the developers intend to start this taxi within five years.
In the test flight, the drone floated up about 200 meters and spun about five minutes past around the bay.
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