On Wednesday, a little-known Chinese drone manufacturer decided to make a splash at Las Vegas\u2019 Consumer Electronics Show.<\/p>\n
Shooting for headlines, Guangzhou-based EHang unveiled its EHang 184, a passenger-carrying craft that the company dubbed \u201cthe world\u2019s first electric, personal Autonomous Aerial Vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEHang 184 is the safest, smartest and eco-friendly low-altitude, Autonomous Aerial Vehicle aiming on providing medium-short transportation solution[s],\u201d said a narrator on the vehicle\u2019s launch video, which showed a human-sized, egg-shaped capsule with four arms and eight propellers gliding majestically over snowcapped mountains, Yosemite\u2019s Hetch Hetchy Valley and the San Francisco skyline.<\/p>\n
There was one small issue, however. None of it was real.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe footage of the drone flying over cities, etc. is computer-generated,\u201d wrote a company spokesperson to FORBES in an email.<\/p>\n
While history has no shortage of entrepreneurs who have over-promised on inventions to encourage imagination and build publicity, unrealistic hype has become an all-too-common marketing strategy in the consumer drone industry. Some companies have revealed too much, too soon, sometimes raising money or selling pre-orders on devices that become seriously delayed, or worse, terminated.<\/p>\n
In a young industry, it can be dangerous to promise devices that are not readily achievable as that sets unrealistic expectations for products that are unfamiliar to mainstream consumers. \u201cIt\u2019s false advertising,\u201d said Drone Analyst Research\u2019s Colin Snow of EHang\u2019s announcement. \u201cCertainly in the short term, it doesn\u2019t help the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n