Google-funded startup relies on fully autonomous planes

The startup from Boston, United States, Merlin Laboratories, supported by Googleannounced his plans for implement its 100% autonomous aircraft technology that can carry passengers. A few days ago, the company explained how it would achieve this, after a millionaire investment round which relies on this type of innovation.

Merlin Labs, in fact, you are not building a physical plane, a flying car or an eVTOL, but develop the fully autonomous technology so that the planes fly by themselves. Initial investors supporting the startup include Google Ventures and first-round capital. The first round of investments was $ 25 million.

With this funding, Merlin Labs plans to implement its autonomous technology in a fleet of aircraft. King Air. To achieve its objectives, the startup has partnered with the aerospace company Dynamic aviation to create its fleet of autonomous planes, without human pilots.

The 55 King Air fleet comes from Dynamic Aviation, which will work with the startup to test the autonomous technology. The main objective is to bring a certifiable autonomous system to fixed-wing aircraft.

The future of flights

The 55 King Air planes will offer 100% autonomous flights from takeoff to landing. This fleet will not have human pilots and, they assure, will be able to carry passengers. To achieve this, the startup is working to offer an autonomous aircraft driving system, through the development of artificial intelligence.

Thus, Merlin Labs wishes to create the first autonomous flight system for large aircraft, with fixed wing, compliant with aeronautical regulations. To achieve this, they test planes at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The startup has flight facilities there, in California.

As specified on their site, they develop sophisticated software and hardware that perform the functions of a human pilot. So far, they note that they have flown hundreds of take-off-to-land missions with thousands of hours of simulation.

The start-up platform worked with four different types of aircraft, going planes single engine complex aircraft with various engines. But how can the safety of passengers be guaranteed in the future?

The company notes that it is working with some of the world’s leading security experts to implement autonomy and integrate into the National airspace system in partnership with regulators.

The technology used by the startup favors autonomy on board rather than remote control. Its ambitious short-term goal is to enable for an aircraft to make its own decisions, with a pilot who maintains his presence for surveillance purposes. In the long term, they seek to allow planes to fly safely without humans on board.

It is important to understand that this innovation is not about autopilots, but rather autonomous aviation, a relatively new and growing field. Two years ago, in July 2019, the Technical University of Munich made its first landing in a 100% autonomous manner.

A year later, during the pandemic, in August 2020, an Airbus A350 took off and landed autonomously. And now, this startup wants to offer its solution to other companies via its autopilot, with an advanced level of autonomous driving.

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