Japan May Have Flying Cars In Three Years
Popularised most memorably by an air-borne DeLorean in Back to the Future 2, the vision of flying cars has been a persistent science fiction trope for many decades. However, the technological challenges and complications of social implementation have largely rendered the idea a no-go.
A Japanese tech startup, the Tokyo-based company SkyDrive, now says it plans to launch the first commercial flying taxi service by 2023. The company’s CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa goes further and even predicts that by the 2040s, there will be a trillion-dollar global market for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
According to Rajeev Lalwani, Morgan Stanley’s aircraft analyst, this market “could likely begin as an ultra-niche add-on to existing transportation infrastructure, similar to how helicopters operate today. They could later transform into a cost-effective, time-efficient method of traveling short to medium distances, eventually taking business away from car and airline companies.”
SkyDrive is one of over 100 flying car initiatives around the world – a race that includes Boeing Co., Airbus SE and Uber Technologies Inc. – but its plan is for a small two-seat vehicle with eVTOLs propellers in all four corners of the upper half of the craft, a design which Fukuzawa believes will enhance its safety. This battery-powered SD-xXX model would have a travel range of dozens of kilometers at 100 kmh (62 mph).
While there are still many skeptics who are cynical that these cars will ever get off the ground (so to speak), Fukuzawa imagines offering a flying taxi service to big cities in Japan, starting in the Osaka Bay area and slowly branching out. By 2050, he believes Japanese citizens will be able to take an air taxi to “any destination within the capital’s 23 wards in 10 minutes.”
“The two biggest difficulties,” he said in a recent interview, “are getting it certified for commercial flights and ensuring the same safety and reliability as existing aircraft — and changing the social climate, by letting the general public know about this air mobility, and making them want to ride a flying car.”
If and when these hurdles are overcome, the air taxi (with the ability to vertically take-off and land) could revolutionize the travel industry, reducing traffic congestion in cities, assisting citizens during natural disasters, and increasing access to remote locations.
“The initial model will fly basically on autopilot, but it’s not 100 percent autonomous because a pilot would need to maneuver it in case of an emergency, for example,” Fukuzawa says.
With drones increasingly commercialised and self-driving cars poised to soon dominate the marketplace, one can imagine a drastically different cityscape in the near future that more closely approximates science fiction movies. While there are legitimate questions about the viability of Japan’s air taxi industry – much less whether that market can spread around the world – the ‘flying car’ prototype is certainly a marvelous technology to behold.
Lord help us.
Driving around Tauranga is dangerous enough. Imagen the fatalities if these people get let loose in these.
Won’t be alowed here.
Dont bother fitting indicators to the Auckland model and make sure the operating manual is in mandarin,
Too bloody right.
No need for indicators.
We can tell the visitors (foreigners from the Waikato! ) by their use of indicators.
We Aucklanders- inspired by our Sandringham PriNZess learn to ‘read between the lines’
Indicators smindicators.
Ha!
Are there going to be flying cop cars? High speed chases around the Sky Tower, under the Harbour Bridge, and up into Auckland Airport controlled space? It literally adds a new dimension to drink driving. Kids in Hamilton and Chch will be pulling 3G loops over the burbs.
I can’t wait. But it did work for George Jetson, so let’s give it a go.
Luc Besson directing…traffic
(the Fifth element)
Bring them on!
Fixes road budgets and look a hell of a lot of fun!
On reflection I should not have to put this post up. If Phail Twitford sees it he will latch onto it as a means of getting the transport link to the airport done without the disruption of all the roads in the city.
ED, He’s got 50 billion to play with now he may do it ,LOL.
‘done without the disruption of all the roads in the city’
Is this another of your jokes, Ed?
Twitford would never go down that path of taking a smart solution.
dummies don’t do that.
Maximum disruption; minimum output is the COL policy.
Maximum disruption; minimum output is the COL policy.
Probably the only success of the coalition of clowns.
This will be Cindy’s new mode of transport so she can
fly over Ao-teea rower to look down on her loyal peasantry
and they will look up at their benevolent, kind, caring leader.
Just an extension of her being a space cadet…..
She won’t need lawnmower now!
How difficult is it to land that machine in a cul de sac on a gusty day? We currently have NW gusts up to 41k/ph. I suggest a flying car for public use is as sensible as the government telling us paying tax and emissions charges will resolve the climate change issues we are told are significant.
Mind you, and it is off topic, they sucked us into paying $1.4B annually to the Paris Agreement on Global Wealth redistribution. There is an easy $1.4B saving right there.
Be great in Auckland for the next few days.
Apparently 4 lanes on the bridge are buggered because a truck hit the structure.
Another one hit the concrete barrier as well.
Good luck with your travel home and back on Monday.
Here’s a video in Japanese. Nice photography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58kEzTpPzS0&ab_channel=SkyDriveInc