A number of companies at the moment are currently racing toward getting their flying car networks off the ground within a few years and if Toyota has its way, it will see flying cars at the Olympics in 2020.
At the moment there is currently a crowdfunding effort underway for the Skydrive car that is going to be a drone-like vehicle that will be able to fly at about 62 pmh and be regarded as one of the world's smallest flying vehicles.
Toyota just recently gave Cartivator group, the ones behind the crowdfunding effort for the Sykdrive, roughly 40 million yen for the project. They are financially backing the group to try and bring the flying car dream to full realization within just a few years. And if they can get ready by the Olympics, it certainly will be quite an impressive platform to debut the commercial vehicle to the world.
The Skydrive design is currently being developed by about 30 volunteers and they want to have it up and running by next year and hopefully see it commercialized in time to use it during the 2020 Olympics to light the games torch.
They have already surpassed their funding goal thanks to the many people online who've already expressed enthusiastic support for the project. On their funding page, they declare that they are seeking to create the world's smallest flying vehicle that is able to take off and fly from any public road and can be interfaced with any smartphone in order to be flown.
Aside from their investment into this project, Toyota has also pledged to invest roughly $9 billion toward new technology in this area. They believe that in order for things to progress, they need to fuel the effort by financing it, rather than waiting until later to get on board.
Will they be able to pull it off by 2020? They certainly have a fair amount of funds to give it a decent effort at trying to accomplish the goal, so we will have to wait and see what happens. Whether it's them or someone else, it probably won't be very long before we start to see flying vehicles making their way to the market.
Pics:
Techspot/Cartivator
zenmono/Cartivator
Sources:
http://www.techspot.com/news/69323-toyota-backs-flying-car-used-2020-tokyo-olympics.html
http://www.techspot.com/news/69323-toyota-backs-flying-car-used-2020-tokyo-olympics.html
https://zenmono.jp/projects/76?locale=en
https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/15/toyota-cartivator-skydrive-flying-car/
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cute gif
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Interesting, the big companies are entering the game! Might just get us all off the ground...
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wouldn't that be nice
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Great post!
I will follow you!
Steem on!
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is it possible ?
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very nice, I think we will find by 2020 we will have kinds of fantastical stuff
flying bike?
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That looks epic! Are those the real pictures for the flying cars?
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yup that is what they want it to look like, according to the crowdfunding page for it:)
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I don't see this being ready by 2020
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they'll have to put in a lot of OT lol
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I still want one of these..
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lets do it!!! I'm game... seriously I want lots of new transportation to happen... who would even dream this blockchain stuff would happen this quickly... or the tesla cars.... or how far phones have come? the design tools for this stuff is advancing very fast too not just how things are made which is also impressive
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I've read about this, it like the little carton show , 'The Jetson'. I think they had a flying car and robots that did most of their work. This age of technology never ceases to amaze me so I won't be surprised if they reach their goal.
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People have been talking about flying cars forever. ;)
Cool article.
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Flying cars = one of the dumbest things to be working on today.
There is no scaling. Tunnels and electric cars are where it is at. There may be a place for some flying copters to take riders to unique locations. They should be far from ordinary.
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or electric flying cars :) lol 👌
i'm sure the multi-billion dollar companies working on this technology have considered its potential and if it were zero then they wouldn't be funneling as much money as they are into it. But we'll have to wait and see! it's good to have options. They thought the segway was going to get mass adopted too lol do you know anyone who owns a segway? 👎 lol
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Electric flying cars will certainly exist as a solution to specific transport needs. Don't let my pessimism curtail too much :)
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Yeah Segway was a dud.
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Segway is not a thing because of economics. Electric flying cars are not a thing because of tech.
Flying cars in general are not around at all because of the terrible risk-reward trade off. No city wants flying cars overhead - even if they are 99.999% safe.
There really is not that much money pouring into flying car research.
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Yes and can you image all those people flying around with their eyes fixated on their phones. Harrison Ford is dangerous enough up there flying around...........
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You think they will let people fly the things. Only way they are allowed in most populated areas is through strict automation.
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I wold have to disagree with you Kyle. Until someone can come up with a massive advancement in battery technology electric cars are a dead end. Once the batteries in those cars begin to weaken they loose all of their value. Just my thought.
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Battery tech is already more than capable for electric vehicles, including trucks. There are many advancements in the pipeline for the next 10 years; huge production and economies of scale coming in the next 1-5. Battery is the only future. No stupid hydrogen fuel cell, no LNG, no flying cars.
It is an electric future. Planes trains and automobiles <3 batteries
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Electric is a dead end as long as everybody insists on driving around 2-ton SUVs and such. Vehicle size will need to shrink drastically to make electric a viable alternative.
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This is simply not true.
Edit: well the SUV is a valid point.
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Would love to see the 2020 games turn into a Blade Runner world.
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I've seen these drone transports an all I can say is ABOUT TIME!
Upvoted
@shayne
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What safety precautions are they taking with these flying cars???
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