In a previous article, we talked about the future of travel – human travel – using drones. Several companies threw in their hats for this chance to get their name in history books. The company who created the first ever mass produced taxi drones will be remembered for years to come.
Companies all over the world threw their names in the hat for this coveted invention. The idea of having a drone, the size of a car, swooping down from the skies to pick you up from your doorstep. That is the dream, right? Something from a far distant future only seen in sci-fi stories. But that may just be the reality we can have in a few years’ time.
From Facebook, Uber, Airbus, as well as smaller drone/tech companies; everyone wants a piece of this taxi drone. Some of them already started testing, while others still have only blueprints in mind.
Ehang filing for Bankruptcy: But it’s not what you think
One of these companies, Ehang, recently came up in the news. Ehang is a drone tech company based in Beijing, China. Here, they create drones – with their biggest one still in development: the Ehang 184. This is a full-sized, functional flying taxi drone estimated to fly to the skies in the next few years.
But it seems the waters are a bit rocky at the company at the moment.
The past few months have seen Ehang file for bankruptcy, but officials within the company are not sweating. Why is that, you ask? It seems that this bankruptcy is a move by Ehang to prepare the company for mass production and commercialization of their taxi drone line. Their drone already performed test runs this past year, carrying actual people – mostly company officials – to short distances. So why the bankruptcy?
Well it may be their way of procuring more funding for their next steps. This would mean that yes, we may in fact see the Ehang 184 taxi drone in the near future. And not just in auto shows or presentations – we may actually use them to replace cabs. But it is still early to make such speculations.
For now all we know is the heads at Ehang consider this filing for bankruptcy as a move to go forward with their taxi drone. What does the future hold?
