Alamak Flying Car Adalah Buatan Cina Pula !

Msia’s 1st flying vehicle – flight this Thurs – not developed by local company 

foreign-made  EHang 216 drone by Yi-Hang Creation Science & Tech

BH reports "Super Dron" is JV by local company and 2 Chinese companies

vehicle takes flight in Subang on Thurs 

company stated Super Dron not meant for public transportation

but for border monitoring, emergency aid vehicle

My views :  I hope the local company can go ahead with their plans to set up an assembly plant here in Malaysia to assemble 1,000 or 10,000 of these Chinese drones for sale in south east Asia, especially Indonesia. I wish them all the success.

It will create badly needed jobs as well as take our local technical skills to the next level.

It is going to be a bit difficult (really long haul) to develop passenger drones on a very big scale. 

There is a simple reason - air and flight safety.

The aviation industry took about a century to develop to where it is today. And the aviation industry is extremely regulated and strictly monitored - from design and manufacture of airplanes, training and operations of air crews (both ground crews and flight crews). 

Aircraft maintenance engineers have to be licensed before they can touch an airplane. Pilots must be specially trained over years. Then there is air traffic control. They have strict rules on how to manage all the airplanes flying in the sky. 

Then the airports must be designed and built to exacting specifications. 
All this put together has created the aviation and air travel industry that we know today.

Now imagine a situation where its Friday and people are running late for Friday prayer. One group of flying cars takes off from Brickfields to fly towards Masjid Saidina Abu Bakar in Bangsar.  

Another group of flying cars from Pantai takes off towards Masjid Negara.  How do they handle the air traffic control? Is there air traffic control? Where are the air corridors ? How do you handle the air traffic? 

And what if bateri habis? Or there is a malfunction? Crash landing? 

Where does your flying car take off and land ?

Where do you park them?

And dont you need a flying license to fly a flying car?   

Hence Amazon,  FedEx, UPS and others are trying out unmanned drones in select locations in the USA - and have their own air traffic control. But even that is going to take a lot of time and A LOT OF INVESTMENT to fully develop. 

The main factor is air safety and flight safety.

I believe the Flying Car Minister does not grasp this basic issue.

Conclusion : 

1. If this is a private sector project why is the Minister getting so involved? 
2. Are taxpayers funds involved in any way? It better not involve taxpayers' money.

The Minister must explain both 1. and 2. 

Or does the Minister have some other personal interest in the project?

Like he is a technology buff or something.