Hover car in japan series#

SkyDrive is currently engaged in the development of a compact, two-seating electric-powered flying car with plans for full-scale production.

Hover car in japan series#

In 2020 it raised 5.1 billion yen ($42 million) in total in Series B funds, according to its website. The companies didn't disclose details of investments in their partnership, nor outline any production timetable or target.įounded in 2018, Tokyo-headquartered SkyDrive counts big Japan businesses like trading house Itochu Corp, tech firm NEC Corp and a unit of energy company Eneos Holdings Inc among its main shareholders. Suzuki announced on Sunday it plans to invest 104.4 billion rupees ($1.37 billion) in its India factory to produce electric vehicles and batteries. In a joint statement, the two companies said they will also work to open up new markets with an initial focus on India, where Suzuki has a roughly half share of the auto market. Japanese officials say Japan has a good chance of emerging as a world leader because the government and the private sector will work closely together.TOKYO - Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp and 'flying car' firm SkyDrive Inc said on Tuesday they have signed a deal to team up in research, development and marketing of electric, vertical takeoff and landing ( eVTOL) aircraft. ride-sharing and transportation network Uber is planning demonstration flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023, and has chosen Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne as the first cities to offer what it calls Uber Air flights.ĭubai has also been aggressive about pursuing flying cars. Flying cars also are being touted as useful for disaster relief. Helicopters are expensive to maintain, noisy to fly and require trained pilots. Often called EVtol, for “electric vertical takeoff and landing” aircraft, a flying car is defined as an aircraft that’s electric, or hybrid electric, with driverless capabilities, that can land and takeoff vertically.Īll of the flying car concepts, which are like drones big enough to hold humans, promise to be better than helicopters. NEC officials said their flying car was designed for unmanned flights for deliveries but utilized the company’s technology in its other operations, such as space travel and cybersecurity. The goal is to deliver a seamless transition from driving to flight like the world of “Back to the Future,” although huge hurdles remain, such as battery life, the need for regulations and safety concerns. group companies and video game company Bandai Namco Holdings. NEC is among the more than 80 sponsor companies for Cartivator’s flying car, which also include Toyota Motor Corp. Cartivator Chief Executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who was at Monday’s demonstration, said their machines were also flying longer lately. Similar projects are popping up around world, such as Uber Air of the United States.Ī flying car by Japanese startup Cartivator crashed quickly in a 2017 demonstration.

Mie, a prefecture in central Japan that’s frequently used as a resort area by Hollywood celebrities, also hopes to use flying cars to connect its various islands. The Japanese government is behind flying cars, with the goal of having people zipping around in them by the 2030s.Īmong the government-backed endeavors is a huge test course for flying cars that’s built in an area devastated by the 2011 tsunami, quake and nuclear disasters in Fukushima in northeastern Japan. The preparations such as the repeated checks on the machine and warnings to reporters to wear helmets took up more time than the two brief demonstrations. The test flight reaching 10 feet high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb. on Monday showed a “flying car,” a large dronelike machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute.