China’s flying taxi completes first test flight in the US

Would you trust your life to an autonomous flying taxi? EHang’s huge passenger drone, which Abacus tested last year, had its first test flight in the US on Tuesday, but without anyone onboard.

EHang is one of many companies competing to put flying taxis in the sky, including Airbus, Uber and  Tencent-backed Lilium. EHang already received a licence to operate mobility services in Guangzhou and expects to start operating a line of commercial flying cars soon, company co-founder Derric Xiong told the South China Morning Post in an earlier interview.

The US flight is the first time EHang got flight approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the test taking place in North Carolina. But EHang might face more regulatory hurdles before it's able to start ferrying around customers. While China might have more of a need for flying taxis given traffic congestion, it’s still a long way to go from test flights to daily operation, according to experts.