FLYING TAXIS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Elastics and the hands will make the weird science. Welcome
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Speaker 2 (00:27):
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Speaker 2 (01:15):
Flying taxis over in China. Chinese regulators at the Civil
Aviation Administration of China made history by issuing the country's
first ever operator certificates to two companies, e Hang Holdings
and Hefai Hey I, green lighting them to launch commercial
services with autonomous passenger drones oftened up flying taxis. This

(01:36):
is a groundbreaking move, marking China's debut and allowing these
futuristic vehicles to carry paying passengers. So what are these
flying taxis? Well, the start of the show is the
e Hang EH two P one six S, a two
seater electrical vertical takeoff and landing vehicle that both companies
are cleared to use. Picture a sleek, compact pod the

(02:00):
size of a small car, equipped with sixteen propellers mounted
on eight arms. Think of it as a high TechEd
drone scaled up for humans. It's fully electric, powered by
lithium ion batteries at charge in about an hour and
offer roughly twenty to thirty minutes of flight time, covering
distances of about twenty two miles at speed of over
eighty miles an hour. Unlike traditional helicopters, it doesn't need

(02:23):
a runway. It lifts off and lands vertically, making it
ideal for urban settings with limited space. The autonomous parts
what sets it a part no pilot is required. Is
controlled by an onboard AI system that handles navigation, obstacle avoidance,
and flight stability, all monitored remotely by a command center.
Passengers climb in, buckle up it, and put their destination

(02:44):
via a touchscreen, and the drone does the rest. It
uses a combination of GPS, radar cameras and real time
data links to chart its course dodge buildings or other aircraft. Also,
it is designed with the redundancy, multiple motors and backup system,
so if one part fails, it can still land safely.
For now, it has been improved for low altitude flights

(03:06):
below one thousand meters on designated routes like sightseeing loops
over cities. The approval build an earlier milestone build on
a earlier milestone of the EH two P one six
DASH seven dash S got its type certification in twenty
twenty three in a production certificate in twenty twenty four.

(03:27):
It's part of chaa's big bet on the low altitude economy.
Etector Beijing wants to grow to one point five trillion
dollars or wand I'm sorry one point five trillion WAN
two hundred and seven billion dollars by the end of
twenty twenty five. These drones could eventually cut through traffic
jams linking rooftops helipads with many verte ports. That said,

(03:47):
it's not a free for all yet. The initial rollout
is limited. Think scenic true scenic tours or pilot programs
rather than Uber in the sky. Scaling up means building
landing pads and refining air traffic rules. Battery life is
a bottleneck too. Twenty to thirty minutes won't get you
very far, though future bottles might stretch that. Still, China's

(04:09):
leapfrogging ahead of everybody else at the moment.