John,
Elevate won't use autonomous vehicles initially - there's no way the certification authorities would allow it. Autonomous is the eventual plan, but only several years down the road.
Volocopter and Ehang don't meet the requirements of Elevate, due both to their capacity and - more importantly - LD ratio (and, hence, cost per seat mile).
In terms of playing catch up, the Elevate project is far bigger than just the air vehicle. It's an entire system.
I/C