This Startup Wants to Fill the Skies With Cargo-Filled Robot Planes
Reliable Robotics has been flying Cessnas through a mixture of autonomy and remote control. FedEx, for one, is a believer.
Reliable Robotics’ Cessna 208 at San Martin Airport in California on Feb. 27.
Photographer: Kelsey McClellan for Bloomberg Businessweek
There’s nothing unusual looking about the 38-foot-long cargo plane that’s been flying around Northern California for the past month. But the insides of the Cessna 208 have undergone a sci-fi makeover, resulting in a plane that’s been taxiing, taking off, maneuvering in the air, and landing without a pilot.
The machinery and software that let it fly on its own come from a startup called Reliable Robotics Corp., which has spent four years working on autonomous flight. The company has a grand total of two planes, but its long-term plan is to fill the sky with pilotless aircraft transporting cargo and passengers.