Can I fly on an EHang EH216-S?

Yes. EHang runs commercial autonomous sightseeing flights in Guangzhou, Hefei, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wenzhou. Flights are short pre-programmed loops of 8 to 10 minutes rather than point-to-point transport.

What happened to Volocopter?

It filed for insolvency in December 2024 and was acquired by Wanfeng Auto Wheel through Diamond Aircraft in March 2025 for roughly EUR 10 million. The VoloCity air taxi programme was shelved in favour of the VoloXPro ultralight.

Is an autonomous air taxi safe without a pilot?

EHang’s EH216-S is the only autonomous passenger eVTOL to have satisfied a civil regulator, holding a full CAAC type, production and operator certificate set. It flies fixed pre-approved routes under ground supervision, which is a far more constrained problem than open autonomous flight.

Live comparison · updated continuously

EHang vs Volocopter — How the Multirotor Race Ended

Two autonomous-versus-piloted multirotors that took opposite paths. One flies commercially today; the other was sold out of insolvency.

eVTOL operator side-by-side comparison
Specification	EHang Commercial Service Best for long trips	Volocopter Bankrupt Best for quiet ops
Range	22 mi Best	22 mi
Top Speed	80 mph Best	68 mph
Cruise Speed	60 mph Best	56 mph
Seats	2 Best	2
Noise	70 dB	65 dB Best
Launch	2,024 Best	—
Funding	200 M USD	600 M USD Best
About	The only eVTOL operator flying paying passengers at scale. EHang holds the world’s first type, production and air operator certificates and flies…	No longer offering air-taxi service. Volocopter was bought out of insolvency by China’s Wanfeng in 2025 and has retreated to the ultralight…
Next steps	Request a charter View profile	Request a charter View profile

EHang has the longest range, EHang is the fastest, and EHang carries the most passengers.

These two programmes ran the same architecture, a simple multirotor for short low-speed city hops, and arrived at opposite outcomes. The comparison is now historical on one side.

EHang went autonomous from the start with the two-seat EH216-S: no pilot, no manual controls, pre-programmed routes and ground supervision. It holds the world’s first eVTOL type certificate (October 2023), production certificate (April 2024) and air operator certificate (March 2025), and flies paying passengers in five Chinese cities.

Volocopter kept a pilot aboard the 18-rotor VoloCity, betting that a piloted aircraft would certify faster with EASA. It did not. The company filed for insolvency in December 2024 after raising more than EUR 600 million, and was bought by Wanfeng in March 2025 for around EUR 10 million. It now sells the VoloXPro ultralight rather than an air taxi service.

The lesson is less about autonomy than about regulator alignment. EHang certified with a regulator moving deliberately fast on low-altitude aviation as national policy. Volocopter needed EASA to write novel rules on a startup’s cash runway, and ran out of money first.