Israel tests unmanned flying taxi over Jerusalem as alternative to congestion

A air taxi Without passengers, it flew over Jerusalem as part of an Israeli experiment aimed at developing a network of drones with the aim of relieving traffic congestion.

The craft, manufactured by a Chinese company, took off on Wednesday from the Hadassah hospital heliport in west Jerusalem for a test flight lasting a few minutes, without any passengers on board.

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This autonomous, electrically powered vehicle has a two-passenger cabin and can fly up to 35 kilometers, according to the experiment’s organizers, including Israel’s Ministry of Transportation and private drone operators.

“What you see here is an air taxi that in the future will be able to transport people from one place to another,” said Daniella Partem, director of the Israel Innovation Authority.

Israel is one of the pioneering countries in the development of drones, which it uses for military purposes and which its army deploys to monitor Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and some of its neighboring Arab countries.

This is the flying taxi used to cross Jerusalem, an alternative to vehicular chaos. (Photo: france24.com)

Since 2019, this country has been pursuing the Israel National Drone Initiative (INDI) with the aim of building air taxis to transport passengers and cargo that can alleviate persistent traffic problems on its routes.

Israel has carried out more than 20,000 experimental flights of unmanned spacecraft of different sizes and is proud to be an international reference in this field.

The national drone plan foresees an investment of 60 million Israeli shekels (16 million dollars) in the next two years for the development of drone flights for civil use.

Five dollar sushi?

“This will allow several companies to have drones in flight in the same area and at the same time, and have offices for medical use and food deliveries simultaneously,” Partem explained to journalists.

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According to the directive, “this will help create a market that is economically viable.”

Partem highlighted that the accident rate recorded since the beginning of the tests is less than “one for every 2,000 flights.”

For Libby Bahat, director of the air infrastructure department at the Israel Civil Aviation Authority, “the main challenge is safety.”

“The safety of people on the ground, and in the future (…) of people in vehicles,” he stated and explained that the safety parameters must incorporate roads, buildings and railways.

The INDI reported that it has already carried out tests to transfer blood samples.

Bahat states that it is difficult to estimate the exact price of this service, but he noted that it will continue to be “expensive,” such that in the near future it will be used to deliver “a plate of sushi for $5.”

This is not the only experiment with a taxi-drone and several countries have carried out test flights, for example France ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games.

Source: Elcomercio