While you could wait around for the likes of Uber or eHang to develop human-carrying drones, not everyone has that kind of patience, least of all Youtube personality Casey Neistat. The part-time snowboarder, full-time vlogger has had his own human-toting multicopter built and dispatched on a mountainside, because chairlifts are for suckers. As is riding on the ground.
It takes a certain kind of daring to defy police orders go snowboarding through a New York City blizzard, but Neistat's latest already-viral-video takes things to a whole new level. Shot in Finland, the video shows the 35-year-old hitching a ride behind a purpose-built multicopter, kind of like wakeboarding (or dronesurfing) for the snow.
The drone is a huge, 16-rotor machine dressed in Christmas lights that apparently took almost a year to develop. And it's a good thing they took their time, because if there's a place you don't want a drone to fail it's when a madman dressed in a Santa suit is dangling from it with one arm.
You can see it all play out in the video below, and if you want more madness, check out this behind-the-scenes video.
So what makes this flying machine superior to the many similarly (or more capable) sized helicopters (or other configurations able to perform the same task) which have been built over the last 3 decades.
Oh, it's more "ScienzFictiony"
Most people would be amazed to realise what a well controlled Helicopter can do.. It's not science fiction, it truly is Magic. (Ok not really) PS, danger is more to do with how recklessly a machine is operated rather than anything inherent in the machine.
Flight times and short range are the real limiting factors in the general usefulness of multicopters and other "RC" aircraft, also situational awareness is so much better when you get a real look at what is, not what a limited camera angle tells you what it appears to be.