Toyota Motor Corp’s engineers gave a demonstration of “their flying car”, in the hope of using the same to “light up the Olympic flame” during the “Tokyo 2020” Summer Games’ opening ceremony. Supported by crowd-funding in the year of 2014, some of the employees of Toyota along with a start-up, “Cartivator”, began their work for developing “SkyDrive, a “flying car”.
Tsubasa Nakamura, the head of Cartivator, stated even during the “early” developmental stage, the team expects to try out the “first manned-flight” of SkyDrive, by the year-end of 2018. The test model took off from the ground and floated “for a few seconds”. Although, Nakamura informed that present design requires to be made more stable so that the prototype is capable of flying longer and higher “enough to reach the Olympic flame”.
The engineers are at work to make the “world's smallest electric vehicle” fly, which is successful can be useful in “small urban areas”, while the team also hopes that by the year of 2025, the car could be launched commercially. For the span of next three years, Toyota Motor will be investing “42.5 million yen” into this project.
Furthermore, Reuters added:
“Companies in the world have been competing to develop the first flying car or vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] announced its plan to deploy its flying taxi service by 2020 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Dubai. Airbus Group is also working on developing its flying car under its division called Urban Air Mobility”.
However, there are still hurdles to be crosses by the manufacturer of flying cars, while the task of “convincing” the public as well as the regulator about the safety of the products still remains to be attained. As of now government are to come out with definite regulations for “drones and driverless cars”.
References:
www.reuters.com
Tsubasa Nakamura, the head of Cartivator, stated even during the “early” developmental stage, the team expects to try out the “first manned-flight” of SkyDrive, by the year-end of 2018. The test model took off from the ground and floated “for a few seconds”. Although, Nakamura informed that present design requires to be made more stable so that the prototype is capable of flying longer and higher “enough to reach the Olympic flame”.
The engineers are at work to make the “world's smallest electric vehicle” fly, which is successful can be useful in “small urban areas”, while the team also hopes that by the year of 2025, the car could be launched commercially. For the span of next three years, Toyota Motor will be investing “42.5 million yen” into this project.
Furthermore, Reuters added:
“Companies in the world have been competing to develop the first flying car or vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] announced its plan to deploy its flying taxi service by 2020 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Dubai. Airbus Group is also working on developing its flying car under its division called Urban Air Mobility”.
However, there are still hurdles to be crosses by the manufacturer of flying cars, while the task of “convincing” the public as well as the regulator about the safety of the products still remains to be attained. As of now government are to come out with definite regulations for “drones and driverless cars”.
References:
www.reuters.com