Dubai Starts Tests in Bid To Become First City With Flying Taxis (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday September 25, 2017 @01:25PM from the to-the-future dept.

Dubai staged a test flight on Monday for what it said would soon be the world's first drone taxi service under an ambitious plan by the United Arab Emirates city to lead the Arab world in innovation. From a report: The flying taxi developed by German drone firm Volocopter resembles a small, two-seater helicopter cabin topped by a wide hoop studded with 18 propellers. It was unmanned for its maiden test run in a ceremony arranged for Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed. Meant to fly without remote control guidance and with a maximum flight duration of 30 minutes, it comes with plenty of fail-safes in case of trouble: back-up batteries, rotors and, for a worst case scenario, a couple of parachutes.

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Re:No, There Aren't "A Couple of Parachutes" by mykro76 · 2017-09-25 14:53 · Score: 4, Insightful

Ejecting any part of the vehicle is going to be a problem for people on the ground.
I suppose that won't really matter if the only people on the ground are the worker classes.