Flyin’ Automobile Video: Japan released ‘breakthrough’ footage of its flying car

Japan’s flying car almost ready/Photo: Peter Landers/Wall Street Journal

Japan’s flying car closer to release.

Blog King, Mass Appeal

JAPAN — Remember the animated ’60s sitcom “The Jetsons?” Well, their traffic modus operandi is close to being realized in the new millennium. That’s because Japan’s SkyDrive Inc. shared a video on Friday that shows an aviator test-driving the company’s airborne automobile called “eVTOL” (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing). Raw footage shows the pilot hovering inside a netted area as spectators ogle in wonderment. “Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful has succeeded with a person on board,” SkyDrive executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa told the Associated Press.

The aerial contraption contains a quartet of propellers and it has the appearance of a motorcycle commingled with a helicopter. Fukuzawa believes “the flying car” could be marketed as a public use vehicle by 2023 as long as all safety precautions are satisfied. Battery sizes, infrastructure and air traffic control are other regulatory issues that must be worked out prior to distribution.

That said… once eVTOL achieves commercialization, we won’t have to deal with airport hassles, DUIs and traffic jams any longer. “I hope many people will want to ride it and feel safe,” Fukuzawa said.

Right now, eVTOL is capable of flying for 5 to 10 minutes.

But Fukuzawa is optimistic it’ll reach 30 minutes soon.

Sanjiv Singh, professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, said “many things have to happen” before eVTOL hits the market. “If they cost $10 million, no one is going to buy them,” he said. “If they fly for 5 minutes, no one is going to buy them. If they fall out of the sky every so often, no one is going to buy them.”

That said, are you excited about eVTOL?

Does it look safe?

Do you plan to purchase one?

Watch the breakthrough demonstration.

Share your thoughts.


  1. William Wallace

    Looks great til a corner motor fails

  2. Not impressed. Ducted fans would be more efficient and much safer. There has to be at least a hafl dozen companies out there with a better product.

  3. That is helicopter not a flying car..

  4. So… They made a helicopter

  5. Squirrels World

    One these days a real non pilot like me is gone get a chance to see what one these new things can do. I mean I most likely will crash it but hey ….why not.

  6. Big deal a drone that hovers! We’ve had those for years now, fly the thing away and then I’ll be like ok cool.

  7. simply a mini-helicopter … what is the news?

  8. I’ll take two please

  9. lmao if you’re willing to use propellers to make a flying car why not go all the way back and use gas like a zeppelin?

  10. They’ve got to figure out the propeller safety

  11. Rukie Martinez

    Is this considered a flying car or mini helicopter?

  12. this might be still far for public use but it could be effective for the first responder nowadays like firefighter, police, lifeguard, medic team etc.

  13. olawale oshatuyi

    I’ve been wondering when something like this will be made and combined with the jet engines that powers Gravity Industries.

  14. kind of scary when the spinning blades are at neck level…

  15. Late. China already produce it. And it fly autonamous. Can be a grab car already without pilot. 5 years late. Just concentrate on your expensive land car.

  16. crap not safe at all . i hate these huge drones being classed as flying cars

  17. Propellers…? a 100 year plus technology and all this fanfare…? give me a break…! no progress at all in the 21st century..? this is just an oversized drone.. yawn… wake me up when there’s something really NEW….!

  18. its like a bird ! so beautifull !

  19. Not a flying car. It’s just a car sized drone with a dude as a pilot. Which doesn’t make it a drone anymore. It’s closer to a helicopter than a car😄

  20. Disappointing… nothing like a 21st century flying car should appear… looks like a 1960’s concept model…. & those exposed rotor blades could sever passerby heads…. is this a prank video?

  21. How much? I’d like to buy one now 😆

  22. This is all the biggest waste of money. It is simply not reasonable to allow regular folks to have flying cars. Which country in their right mind would allow this to happen on a wide scale? Not even Russians are that crazy.
    Its not even new, I used to see stuff like this on a TV show in the 90’s..

  23. The key to success is how they improve A.I for a emergency situation such as unpredictable strong wind (turbulence ) and safety devices to soft-landing by a parachute.

  24. Ok this “flying car” is slow

  25. Although its impressive…. I’ve come to the realization that ufo’s 🛸 will definitely wipe us out if they wanted to….

  26. That’s just a man in a damn big drone

  27. It’s stupid to call it a flying car. Clickbait if you ask me. This is simply a personal aircraft.

  28. magnetmannenbannanen

    HOOLEE FUUUK a flying car.

  29. So it’s pretty much a big ass drone

  30. finally a human size drone…

    does it come with a controller???

  31. 1970 : there will be second pandemic in future
    2020 : flying cars

  32. Bonjour Madeline

    Imagine the noise when hundreds of those are flying all at the same time.

  33. Krishnakant Pore

    Not what I expected, but its cool

  34. There is no such thing as a flying car. A car cannot fly, it only drives along the ground. If it flies, than its an aircraft, and we have plenty of those. What we don’t have is a small aircraft that is cheap enough, quiet, enough safe enough, and easy enough for a common person to own and use.

  35. Guided Sleep Meditations by Tracks To Relax

    Enclose those blades, otherwise you just made a head chopper.

  36. Paul Matthew Hill

    Wow, this looks like something from 1970….

  37. Too loud. Single passenger. Probably way too expensive to make this commercially viable.

  38. I don’t see the “car” aspect. Journalists lying through their teeth as usual

  39. Yep. The world is officially fucked.

  40. Look real close. This is not a flying car, it is a small personal helicopter for one person. We do not need flying cars we just need to get rid of fossil fuels. Flying cars will lead to to much sky traffic and a lot more transportation related deaths.

  41. This is literal pie-in-the-sky, for a very good reason; imagine if all the cars on the roads today were in the air at all times. Is that how you want to live? With all these car-sized objects in the air at all times? That’s like permanent air pollution. What if one falls out of the sky? (And for sure, it won’t be just one…) I can’t even see Amazon’s drone delivery program working because of this one factor: quantity.

    Why hasn’t anyone thought about this?

  42. So if this classifies as a car, do you need a drivers license, or a pilots license 🤔 or both.

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