Toyota to finance flying cars in Japan. First prototype to be ready for testing in 2018
Toyota agreed to help finance a group looking into developing flying cars. The first prototype should be ready for testing in 2018.
Toyota reportedly agreed to offer some 40 million yen, the equivalent of $352,982, to a Japanese group looking into the development of flying cars. According to Nikkei Asia Review, Toyota and its group companies have agreed, in principle to help Cartivator with funding.
Cartivator, a group started back in 2012, has some 30-odd members that donate their free time and receive additional support for creating flying vehicles. Until the Toyota announcement, the group has largely been dependent on crowdfunding in order to raise the sums of money needed for the inventions.
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With the help of Toyota, the group plans to have the first prototype ready for manned testing by the end of 2018 and, by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympics, Cartivator hopes to already commercialise the first flying cars.
Some of the issues that the group has in mind are linked to e-technology needed to control propellers in order to stabilise the vehicle.
From car companies to aircraft manufacture, there are a lot of investments going towards flaying cars. Airbus announced that it plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car by the end of this year while Uber has partnered up with Pipstrel in order to develop Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles, that should be tested for urban use in 2020.
This is not all, Kitty Hawk, supported by Google’s Larry Page also hopes to cash in on its tested Flyer.
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