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Passenger drone gets permission for US flight tests

• 6stringmerc 10y ago
  Not a fan of calling it a drone when it's essentially a helicopter with multiple rotors, but it's the title being used. Change if you will.
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    Its an autonomous aerial vehicle, which have been called "drones" for a long time. (And the quadrotor design is also typically used by modern drones, so I'm not sure why you are saying that that's something that weighs against calling it a drone.) Are you objecting to calling it a "drone" because it carries a person (a passenger, not a pilot)? That's, IMO, an odd objection.
    • 6stringmerc 10y ago
      It's autonomous but now the term "drone" is also becoming synonymous with consumer-grade "UAVs" which are controlled from the ground. Thus not autonomous. Thus while this is autonomous and does fit with the "drone" term in common parlance, it's also overlapping with the notion of "drone" that can be controlled from the ground. I'd much prefer to just call it an "Unpiloted Passenger Vehicle" or "UPV" which only appears to be used by the Coast Guard as a term for "Uninspected Passenger Vessel" and could be reasonably co-opted. Or "Autonomous Passenger Vehicle" which could apply to both flying and non-flying vehicles, of which both are seemingly in advanced development stages.