Grab any drone with a 200kg capacity (they do exist), hang a lawn chair under it, and take to the sky. That's probably safer. Jetpacks as a concept might get overtaken by the small helicopters we today call drones.
There are other big, people-carrying drones. eHang was probably the first, in 2016. They've actually sold a few. Price is above US$300K. They routinely fly above cities.
Like everybody else, they're battery-limited. Their limit is about 30 minutes.
All those un-shrouded spinning blades at low height are worrisome.
eHang was not the first, but they do seem to have good marketing.
German company Volocopter flew a manned demonstration rig in 2011 (the famous pilates ball [1]), and had the first manned flight of the Volocopter multicopter (certified, 18 rotors) in February 2016, with the CEO himself flying [2].
I don't know when the eHang 184 flew first (a video on youtube says Feb 2018 [3]). Personally, I find the design (with 8 rotors in a quadratic arrangement at knee-height, perfect for decapitating pedestrians) atrocious. (The Volocopter blades are above the cabin, as in a helicopter.)
And where do you get the 30 minutes endurance for the eHang from? When I divide the range by the cruise speed from Wikipedia, I get about 8 minutes endurance.
But would you let a child operate the drone chair? I think you're right that drones would be some kind of safer, I think it's the more likely of the two technologies to work for personal aviation.
If you want to get to work in the morning, then a drone full of autopilots and AI is the safe and reliable way to fly across the city. But for living the Ironman fantasy of sailing through windows then you'll need a jetpack with all the associated dangers.
Grab any drone with a 200kg capacity (they do exist), hang a lawn chair under it, and take to the sky. That's probably safer. Jetpacks as a concept might get overtaken by the small helicopters we today call drones.