Originally Posted by
pba_target
Dronedog - the key difference between a drone and a helicopter is if the drone gets it wrong, generally no one dies. The barrier to entry in "approved for flight" software outside the experimental class is the requirement to test ad infinitum, which plays havoc with a standard software development cycle. Something like automated obstacle avoidance, while "easy" in drone world, and certainly not impossible in helicopter world, is going to be far from cheap for a passenger carrying aircraft.
Note that the sophisticated R66 mod produced by Skryse is priced at 1.8 million USD for early adopters (and I'd imagine in line with Hill that'll go up later)
Source
That's basically double the price of the standard airframe.
All of the above is true, my point being that the technology already exists to do this, and there are a number of companies working on fully or semi-autonomous flight systems. I am sure the CAA and FAA will severely restrict such a system but other countries with lax regulations will not.
https://www.ehang.com/ehangaav
https://www.aurora.aero/autonomy/
https://www.volocopter.com/en/
https://lilium.com/
etc