The Griff 300 octocopter can care 500 pounds of passenger for 45 minutes of flight time. It weighs just 165 pounds.
(From )
The drone is controlled via radio remote control from the ground. Those with the extra cash also have the option of adding a mobile control station, which allows for the drone to be controlled in the first-person view. The drone also has a variety of other add-ons that make it suitable for a number of applications, including search and rescue or firefighting.
I think that the tin cabbie from James Blish's 1957 story Cities in Flight is a pretty good prediction of the Griff:
The cab came floating down out of the sky at the intersection and maneuvered itself to rest at the curb next to them with a finicky precision. There was, of course, nobody in it; like everything else in the world requiring an IQ of less than 150, it was computer-controlled...
The cab was an egg-shaped bubble of light metals and plastics, painted with large red-and-white checkers, with a row of windows running all around it. Inside, there were two seats for four people, a speaker grille, and that was all: no controls and no instruments...
(Read more about the tin cabbie)
San Francisco Autobus
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street...' - Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum, 1938.
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''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
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