It is a quad copter. I don't think we are far away from seeing this as a practical vehicle. It will occur overseas first.
Robert
OK, we have a large drone. That is not such a leap. They work, and they are becoming more prevalent.
This drone has a (single) seat in it. That means they are pitching it as a passenger carrying aircraft, and what's more, a remote control passenger aircraft. It has a huge uphill climb ahead to make it so.
First, the weight of the missing (single) passenger is probably half or more the weight of the aircraft we are looking at. And we are only looking at a very short out and return flight. More range equals more batteries, more power, more weight. Those numbers add up and each addition requires other additions through scaling. The size, power, and cost keeps going up.
We are looking at an aircraft with 8 propellers/rotors in 4 locations where people can walk into them easily, or the remote control motors started while persons are standing next to the props. There are at least 4 motors. What happens if one fails in flight? Or just one rotor fails from a bird strike?
From what we were seeing, the flight was not autonomous, but rather remote controlled. The data link would need to be considerably more robust than my cell phone is. Providing that level of reliable communication infrastructure over the entire vertical and horizontal area that the drones might want to fly in would be immensely costly. Cell towers expect you to be on the ground.
I am just warming up with the issues I see here. Yes, gee whiz and all that, but I think we will be waiting a very long time before these drones replace the family car, especially when you also factor in strong winds, snow, ice, thunderstorms, electrical grid failure, and much, much more reality.
The answers to all that are money, huge money, and real signs that it is more practical than other transportation options and affordable enough to reach a large enough scale to reach a critical mass toward success.
Is it technologically possible? Sure it is. Is it likely to be ubiquitous in the next decade or so? I think it unlikely. The high threshold of investment needed to achieve success would probably not be underwritten by the relatively few wealthy players who would have to completely fund the startup.
Finally, why not just take a self driving and dirt cheap Uber land vehicle (which is for sure coming very soon) and play with your phone? This aircraft is not a sexy sports car aircraft, it is a tiny air taxi with no pilot, going through turbulent air. Uber will be more comfortable, safer, and you can take more people and baggage. It is easy to stop for lunch and a restroom.
My prediction is that you will see autonomous and remote controlled (redundant) heavy freight aircraft in the very near future carrying freight for Amazon, Fedex, UPS,, and the other likely suspects. I am quite sure that is being seriously talked about right now, and the current infrastructure will not need a sea change to allow it. The money is there. The only issues that will stop that from happening very soon are human, not technological. If big money pushes it hard enough, it WILL happen.
OK. I am done with my off group topic rant. Back to machining...