China’s drone taxi industry officially lifted off this week, as EHang Holdings and Hefei Hey Airlines became the first companies to receive certifications from the Civil Aviation Administration of China to launch autonomous flying drones for commercial taxi use. This development comes as China pulls ahead of the US drone industry—amid recent comments by Andreessen Horowitz’s Marc Andreessen, who noted that the Biden-Harris administration’s FAA slowed the US drone industry. It raises the question: Did the previous administration’s FAA deliberately slow America’s drone industry, allowing China to gain a strategic edge?
The South China Morning Post reported that China’s low-altitude economy has officially lifted off. EHang and Hefei Hey are dominating the skies with eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) taxi drones that can reach altitudes of 10,000 feet and transport two passengers across town.
“This marks the beginning of China’s low-altitude human-carrying flight era, allowing the public to book flights for low-altitude tourism, urban sightseeing, and more in Guangzhou and Hefei,” EHang stated on X, adding, “With this certification, EHang becomes the world’s first eVTOL company to achieve the full suite of regulatory approvals, paving the way for large-scale commercialization of autonomous aerial mobility.”
🚀 EHang’s EH216-S eVTOL Operators Obtain Air Operator Certificates ✈️
EHang’s EH216-S eVTOL operators, EHang General Aviation and Heyi Aviation, have officially received China’s first-ever Air Operator Certificates (OC) for civil pilotless human-carrying aerial vehicles by the… pic.twitter.com/jqX74ETR8A
— EHang (@ehang) March 30, 2025
China-based journalist Li Zexin commented on the development: “China is at the forefront of the world’s 4th Industrial Revolution.”
China has officially entered the era of “flying taxis”.
2 Chinese companies have obtained the commercial operation certificate for autonomous passenger drones from CAAC.
China is at the forefront of the world’s 4th Industrial Revolution. pic.twitter.com/POFiLTs3I1
— Li Zexin (@XH_Lee23) March 31, 2025
Meanwhile, Marc Andreessen told the host of Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson (former Reagan speechwriter), earlier this year that:
We have a drone company that’s been trying to compete with the Chinese company. Number one, the Biden FAA has been trying to kill us this entire time, trying to do all kinds of things to make sure that American drone companies can’t succeed as part of their war on tech. It’s literally just another in the long list of ways that they’ve been just trying to absolutely kill us.
🚨 NEW: Marc Andreessen on China’s manufacturing dominance
“There’s three industries that follow phones that the Chinese own the global market at:
1) Drones
Something over 90% of all the consumer drones are made in China. Which is what the US Military also uses. It’s the whole… pic.twitter.com/e94C927MMU— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) January 15, 2025
Why on Earth would the Biden administration weaponize the FAA to slow down America’s drone industry? The answer might be found here.
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