VIDEO: Wisk’s Full-Stack Autonomy Testing: Integrating Critical Systems for the Future of Autonomous Flight

Wisk has released a short video, which details how the com­pa­ny devel­ops the auton­o­my sys­tem for its Gen 6 eVTOL air­craft.

The Boe­ing sub­sidiary is pio­neer­ing the future of autonomous flight with cut­ting-edge inno­va­tions which will rede­fine urban air mobil­i­ty. A cru­cial step in its jour­ney is full-stack auton­o­my test­ing, where it inte­grates all crit­i­cal sys­tems — sen­sors, radar, radios, and flight computers—into a sin­gle, seam­less plat­form.

Its R&D heli­copter then serves as the test­bed for this inte­gra­tion, allow­ing the team to val­i­date how these com­po­nents work togeth­er as one cohe­sive sys­tem.

Why Full-Stack Autonomy Matters

Autonomous flight isn’t just about hav­ing a capa­ble air­craft — it’s about ensur­ing all sys­tems work in har­mo­ny to nav­i­gate com­plex air­space safe­ly and reli­ably. Unlike con­ven­tion­al air­craft that rely heav­i­ly on pilots, Wisk says its approach is focused on full auton­o­my, reduc­ing human work­load while enhanc­ing safe­ty and effi­cien­cy.

Wisk’s full-stack auton­o­my test­ing ensures that:

• Sen­sors pro­vide real-time sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness.
• Radar detects and tracks oth­er air­craft and obsta­cles.
• Radios facil­i­tate seam­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion with air traf­fic man­age­ment.
• Flight com­put­ers make intel­li­gent deci­sions to ensure safe and effi­cient oper­a­tions

The Role of its R&D Helicopter

To test and refine these sys­tems, Wisk has inte­grat­ed them into its R&D heli­copter, to gath­er invalu­able data in real-world flight con­di­tions. This approach helps Wisk eval­u­ate:

• Sen­sor Fusion: How dif­fer­ent sen­sor inputs are com­bined to cre­ate a uni­fied pic­ture of the air­space
• Redun­dan­cy & Reli­a­bil­i­ty: How the sys­tem han­dles unex­pect­ed sce­nar­ios or poten­tial fail­ures
• Deci­sion-Mak­ing Algo­rithms: How the air­craft inter­prets data to make real-time flight adjust­ments

Building Toward the Future

This full-stack auton­o­my test­ing is a crit­i­cal mile­stone on Wisk’s path to launch­ing self-fly­ing air taxis. The insights gained from these tests will direct­ly inform the devel­op­ment of its next-gen­er­a­tion air­craft, ensur­ing they meet the high­est safe­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty stan­dards.