EHang 184: One Passenger, No Pilot Chinese small unmanned-aircraft manufacturer EHang has unveiled a single-passenger vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) autonomous air vehicle with a scaled-up multicopter configuration similar to its Ghost Drone quadrotor and other consumer “drones.” Displayed in prototype form at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 6-9, the 440-lb. EHang 184 has eight propellers mounted in pairs at the end of four arms.

The Ehang 184 is equipped with a total of eight rotors pushing 142 horsepower. The eight rotors are grouped by two at the four corners of the passenger drone, lifting it up to as high as 11,000 feet while cruising at 62 miles per hour. Ehang’s AAV (autonomous aerial vehicle) can still fly even if one of its propellers malfunctions. Now that’s a bit of a scary situation, but Ehang says its fail-safe system is redundant enough to ensure that the 184 will still be able to land in the nearest safe area.