NEC Corp. has demonstrated in Japan a large drone with four propellers that’s capable of carrying people, with the machine to hover without any passenger onboard for about a minute.
Powered by a battery, the "flying car" rose briefly to about 3 meters (10 ft.) above the ground before settling down again.
The model is about 3.9 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 1.3 meters tall, and weighs about 150 kilograms. It’s being tested in a large 10-meter-by-20-meter cage that’s 2 meters tall, to make sure it doesn’t fly out of control and injure someone, or cause damage.
Japan’s government wants the country to become a leader in flying cars after missing out on advancements in technology such as electric cars and ride-hailing services. The country’s technological roadmap calls for shipping goods by flying cars by around 2023 and letting people ride in flying cars in cities by the 2030s.
Venture capitalists in Japan set up a specialized fund, known as the Drone Fund, devoted to investing in autonomous aircraft in general and flying-car businesses in particular.
However, NEC itself isn’t planning to mass-produce the flying car. Instead project partner Cartivator will start mass producing the transportation machine in 2026, according to the startup’s co-founder, Tomohiro Fukuzawa.
Besides Japan, Dubai, Singapore, and New Zealand have expressed similar intentions to develop flying vehicles. Google co-founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk Corp. is also working on a flying car, as is Uber Technologies Inc.