SpaceX Veterans Pass Milestone in Self-Flying Plane Race
- Reliable Robotics remotely lands Cessna owned by FedEx
- Strategy begins with adapting existing planes for flying cargo
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Silicon Valley has been hard at work on the vexing challenge of autonomous cars. Now veterans of SpaceX and Tesla Inc. are announcing what they’ve been up to: a new startup working on self-flying planes for cargo.
Reliable Robotics isn’t trying to invent a new kind of aircraft. The idea is to bring autonomous capability to existing planes, starting with smaller aircraft that ferry cargo. In June, with approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Reliable Robotics demonstrated a fully automated remote landing of a Cessna 208 Caravan turboprop owned by FedEx Corp.