Autorotate to where?
In fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft, a controlled glide or autorotation needs to be initiated by the pilot, and a suitable landing site quickly identified.
One only has to look at the tragic Clutha incident to see what happens if this goes wrong over an urban environment.
The software challenges to deal with this situation in the case of automated air taxis will make the flight control systems seem easy. It will also lead to air lanes between fixed landing sites being enforced since then potential emergency sites can be kept on those routes.
There is no way that these will be permitted in densely-populated areas due to these risks. Helicopters are restricted in where they can fly over population centres, and twin-engines are mandated in most such cases (Clutha was a fuel management issue according to AAIB even though the machine had 2 engines).
I don’t see how the proponents of these devices can expect different treatment to existing aircraft as the risks are largely the same.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
