What It's Like to Fly in Xwing's Self-Flying Plane
What It's Like to Fly in Xwing's Self-Flying Plane
9:16

What It's Like to Fly in Xwing's Self-Flying Plane

Science
Speaker 1: This may look like a regular Cessna behind me, but it's anything but this plane has the ability to fly completely autonomously. Now I'm about to take a ride and unless something really unexpected happens, the safety pilot on board isn't gonna touch the controls. Once autonomy is everywhere these days, it can drive you to work, deliver your lunch [00:00:30] and secure your home. But are you ready to let it fly our plane? Speaker 2: Welcome Speaker 1: To X-Wing, a bay startup that wants to put cargo flights in the sky with no pilots. This is an experimental Cessna 2 0 8 Grand Caravan modified with X-Wing super pilot autonomous flight system. Super pilot is a suite of software and hardware that can perceive the world around the plane, make decisions, control [00:01:00] the plane, and communicate with human monitors on the ground. Speaker 3: So right now he's doing automated pre-flight checks with the system. So the trims being checked, the flaps are being Speaker 1: Checked. I'm about to see how it all works. By letting super pilot take me on a fully autonomous flight, we begin taxing to the runway in manual with the human pilot at the controls, but with the push of a button Speaker 4: X-wing auto flight system Speaker 1: Engaged, super pilot takes over. So we're an X-Wing fully autonomous plane. Ryan, the pilot is [00:01:30] sitting right next to me, but he is not gonna do anything. This plane is about to fly itself. We're about to take off, Speaker 4: Off air speed alive Speaker 1: Felt so natural. Like if I didn't know what was going on, I would think a human was flying this plane, Speaker 5: That the one through two make detail down be no factor. Speaker 3: Okay, so we're actually flying, uh, an automated vision right now using, uh, FAA weigh [00:02:00] points. Um, so we're gonna fly to intercept this wave point and we're climbing on up to, to 3000 feet. As it's climbing, it's using, its uh, its maximum, uh, torque available, which is essentially power to, to enable it to climb as quickly as possible. Speaker 1: Autopilot is not a new concept. It's been around almost as long as planes. Some experts estimate as much as 90% of commercial flights are automated. But takeoff is always manual since [00:02:30] it would require a split second decision to abort. Most landings are also done manually and even at cruising altitude. It's the pilot's responsibility to monitor conditions and take over any changes to the flight plan. Speaker 6: In all system, the system is designed from the ground up to be able to, uh, detect, identify any fault and keep, uh, flying throughout the mission. Speaker 1: Maxim Garal is X Wing's Chief Technology Officer. It's his job to figure out what behaviors the plane needs to fly safely [00:03:00] from taxi to landing. Speaker 6: The system can be broken down into three pieces. The first piece is the auto flight system that allows the aircraft to fly as well as to taxi. So it's really like controlling all the control surfaces, controlling the brakes, act, trading all the switches. Then the second portion is the perception system that allows the aircraft to see what's around, to understand its surroundings and to make decisions. And finally the third portion is the communication system. So being able to communicate with the atrophy control with the ground control system that [00:03:30] we have, as well as with other pilots. Speaker 1: The plane is full of sensors, lidar, camera, radar. All of these designed to help detect other objects during taxiing takeoff landing and navigation. Speaker 3: Oh, there's the traffic right there. Finally see it visually. Speaker 1: If super pilot does detect another aircraft in the flight path, the plane can automatically adjust its plan to avoid a potential collision. It's worth noting we weren't relying on the object avoidance [00:04:00] technology during our demonstration. That was done manually on the ground. A human operator monitors the plane and the flight plan, but if everything goes according to plan, Speaker 7: Our ground control station operators don't honestly have to do that much. We're mostly our radio operator at this point. We are supervising our autonomous system and making sure that everything is healthy and all good to go and it's making smart, uh, choices about where it's going. I'm not doing anything to interface with the airplane. I'm only talking [00:04:30] to other airplanes or air traffic control Speaker 1: Back at 3000 feet. Ryan shows me how super pilots precision gives it a major advantage over human pilots. Speaker 3: So this is one of the displays, uh, that's integrated with the system. So it kind of, uh, tells you the system is engaged in auto boat and then it tells you like the current indicated air speed and altitude. You can see they're perfectly stabilized. If I was flying the airplane, it would be embarrassing. I'd probably be all over the place, but perfectly stabilizing crews right now. Speaker 1: To be clear, that is not a slight [00:05:00] on his skills as a pilot. Speaker 3: Yeah, so super pilot has much better awareness of small changes that are required. So it's very hard to be as precise Speaker 1: And that translates into better efficiency Speaker 3: As well. Correct. And also like just human fatigue. Like you can only focus so hard on something for so long. Speaker 1: Xw isn't planning on sending passengers on Pilotless flights anytime soon. Its Target is the cargo industry. X-Wing ceo Mark pti founded the company in 2016. He had started flying plane just a year before and [00:05:30] saw what he calls the unfulfilled potential of aviation Speaker 8: Aircraft are amazing vehicles. But the problem is they're hard to fly. When you drive a car, you kind have a sense for the amount of grip, uh, the tire has on the road. You can see obstacles relatively easily cuz they, uh, and then react to them fairly quickly. When you're flying the aircraft, you don't get any of these, uh, reference points. Uh, you don't know how much wind there is out there. You can't feel how fast the vehicle is flying. And when you're looking [00:06:00] to avoid other obstacles, you have to spot them miles away. Speaker 1: Mark says a fleet itself flying cargo planes can reduce costs and improve accessibility for small communities around the world. But it could also be a stepping stone to help pave the way for autonomous passenger flights. Let's face it, people are still getting used to the idea of letting their cars do the driving. Convincing them to take the pallet out of a cockpit at 30,000 feet will likely be even harder. Speaker 3: Would [00:06:30] you feel comfortable if I wasn't here or, Uh, that's a great question. Runway, Speaker 8: I think you could look at it, uh, the same way people looked at elevators in the turn of last century. I mean, what would it take for me to get into an elevator within an operator, a human operator on board? Well, I don't know. Shoot, you're looking back now. You'd be like, Well that's silly. Why would you need a human to go help you press buttons on an elevator? But back then, this was very controversial. Our grandkids will get on vehicles and and we'll ask themselves, [00:07:00] Well, why did you ever need pilots on board these vehicles? Speaker 1: But what would that mean for the future pilots of the world? We've gotten used to seeing robots take over manual labor and manufacturing jobs, but we like to think careers that require years of specialized training are generally protected from becoming automated still. Ryan says he welcomes X-wing autonomous planes once the technology has passed the regulatory process, the company plans to start with regional cargo flights that most pilots don't want. Speaker 3: The normal mission for this [00:07:30] airplane is like fly from 5:00 AM to 6:00 AM the airplane, sit there from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM and then fly for one hour. At the end of the Speaker 8: Day. We actually think this technology is a job creator as opposed to something that will take away jobs. There might be some changes in the types of jobs that people have, right? Uh, there's gonna be a lot of jobs for remote operators in, uh, network operat, network operation centers to supervise these fleets, uh, of, of include vehicles. Speaker 1: Xw already [00:08:00] operates a fleet of 35 aircraft that fly piloted cargo flights around the us. The company is hoping to have its super pilot technology certified and in commercial operation in mid 2025. Speaker 3: Auto land sequence initiated, Well, it's starting the, uh, the landing sequence. So the flaps already went to 10, slowly increasing the pitch attitude, the smooth Speaker 9: Go straight, left down, three, four Speaker 3: Other beautiful landing. Speaker 1: So now that [00:08:30] I've experienced my first self flying flight, I have to say that it really didn't feel that much different than any other flight that I've been on. I mean, yes, I did have a safety pilot sitting next to me who was ready to jump in and take the controls if anything did go wrong. But the autopilot was engaged really most of the time and it felt really smooth, really natural. I really couldn't tell the difference between the autopilot and the manual pilot. So it's not a matter matter of if, but when this technology is coming. So I wanna know what you think. [00:09:00] Would you take a flight in a self flying plane? Let me know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to CNET for more like it.

Up Next

Las Vegas Sphere: Everything You Need to Know
exosphere

Up Next

Las Vegas Sphere: Everything You Need to Know

Future-Tech Trends to Watch in 2024
more-quantum

Future-Tech Trends to Watch in 2024

Creating the World's Most Efficient Solar Electric Car
cruiser-class

Creating the World's Most Efficient Solar Electric Car

40 Miles an Hour in an Electric Speedboat: Test-Driving the Arc One
arc-one-cms-thumb

40 Miles an Hour in an Electric Speedboat: Test-Driving the Arc One

How Mark Rober's Rivalry with Mr. Beast Led to a Nerf Gun Made of DNA
dna-nerf-gun

How Mark Rober's Rivalry with Mr. Beast Led to a Nerf Gun Made of DNA

Brain-Computer Interface: No Open Brain Surgery Required
demo3

Brain-Computer Interface: No Open Brain Surgery Required

Electronic Nose 'Smells' Wildfires for Ultra-Early Detection
cms-thumb

Electronic Nose 'Smells' Wildfires for Ultra-Early Detection

First Look at the Tech Inside the $2.3B MSG Sphere
msg-sphere

First Look at the Tech Inside the $2.3B MSG Sphere

Turning Wave Power Into Electricity, Hydrogen Fuel and Fresh Water
swel-2

Turning Wave Power Into Electricity, Hydrogen Fuel and Fresh Water

Ample's Next-Generation EV Battery-Swapping Station
yt-ample-battery-v2-b

Ample's Next-Generation EV Battery-Swapping Station

Tech Shows

The Apple Core
apple-core-w

The Apple Core

Alphabet City
alphabet-city-w

Alphabet City

CNET Top 5
cnet-top-5-w

CNET Top 5

The Daily Charge
dc-site-1color-logo.png

The Daily Charge

What the Future
what-the-future-w

What the Future

Tech Today
tech-today-w

Tech Today

Latest News All latest news

PlayStation 5 Pro Leaked: Everything We Know
playstation5pro-leak-clean

PlayStation 5 Pro Leaked: Everything We Know

Everything Just Revealed at Nvidia's GTC AI Conference
nvidiastill

Everything Just Revealed at Nvidia's GTC AI Conference

Nvidia Reveals Omniverse Cloud Streams to the Vision Pro
nvidia-vision-pro-image

Nvidia Reveals Omniverse Cloud Streams to the Vision Pro

Nvidia Shows Project GROOT and Disney Bots at GTC Conference
robot-2

Nvidia Shows Project GROOT and Disney Bots at GTC Conference

Expert vs. AI: Is Now the Time to Buy an EV?
gettyimages-1178244881

Expert vs. AI: Is Now the Time to Buy an EV?

The PlayStation Portal Built-In Volume Is too Loud: Here's How to Keep It Low
playstation-portal-audio-options-thumb2

The PlayStation Portal Built-In Volume Is too Loud: Here's How to Keep It Low

Most Popular All most popular

First Look at TSA's Self-Screening Tech (in VR!)
innovation

First Look at TSA's Self-Screening Tech (in VR!)

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: More AI at a Higher Cost
240123-site-samsung-galaxy-s24-ultra-review-4

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: More AI at a Higher Cost

'Circle to Search' Lets Users Google From Any Screen
circlesearchpic

'Circle to Search' Lets Users Google From Any Screen

Asus Put Two 14-inch OLEDs in a Laptop, Unleashes First OLED ROG Gaming Laptop
asus-preces-00-00-25-11-still003

Asus Put Two 14-inch OLEDs in a Laptop, Unleashes First OLED ROG Gaming Laptop

Samsung Galaxy Ring: First Impressions
samsung-galaxy-ring-clean

Samsung Galaxy Ring: First Impressions

Best of Show: The Coolest Gadgets of CES 2024
240111-site-best-of-ces-2024-1

Best of Show: The Coolest Gadgets of CES 2024

Latest Products All latest products

First Look: The $349 Nothing Phone 2A Aims to Brighten Your Day
240304-site-nothing-phone-2-first-look-v3

First Look: The $349 Nothing Phone 2A Aims to Brighten Your Day

Best of MWC 2024: Bendable Screens, AI Wearables and More
240229-site-best-of-show-at-mwc

Best of MWC 2024: Bendable Screens, AI Wearables and More

This Concept Laptop from Lenovo Has a Transparent Display
240225-site-lenovo-translucent-laptop-concept-v3

This Concept Laptop from Lenovo Has a Transparent Display

Motorola's Rollable Concept Phone Wraps on Your Wrist
240225-site-motorola-rollable-concept

Motorola's Rollable Concept Phone Wraps on Your Wrist

See Adobe Lightroom on the Apple Vision Pro
adobe-lightroom-00-02-58-03-still006-1

See Adobe Lightroom on the Apple Vision Pro

This $400 Cane Has a Built-In Phone
p1022441-mp4-15-35-32-23-still001

This $400 Cane Has a Built-In Phone

Latest How To All how to videos

Windows 11 Tips and Hidden Features
240311-site-windows-11-hidden-tips-and-tricks-v2

Windows 11 Tips and Hidden Features

Vision Pro App Walkthrough -- VisionOS 1.0.3
VisionOS 1.0.3

Vision Pro App Walkthrough -- VisionOS 1.0.3

Tips and Tricks for the Galaxy S24 Ultra
240216-site-galaxy-s24-ultra-tips-and-hidden-features-2

Tips and Tricks for the Galaxy S24 Ultra

TikTok Is Now on the Apple Vision Pro
tiktok-on-vision-pro-clean

TikTok Is Now on the Apple Vision Pro

Get Your TV Ready for the Big Game: Super Bowl Setup Tips
superbowl-tv-settings-thumb1

Get Your TV Ready for the Big Game: Super Bowl Setup Tips

How to Use a Quest 3 Like the Vision Pro
240202-site-spatial-computing-on-meta-quest-3

How to Use a Quest 3 Like the Vision Pro