Toyota Trying To Develop A Flying Car Before Tokyo Olympics
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Japanese automaker Toyota and its group companies will invest in a project to develop a flying car.
Project members are volunteer engineers from Toyota and other firms. They are trying to produce a car equipped with four rotors and eight rotor blades, which will enable it to fly like a drone.
Toyota and 14 of its group companies plan to speed up the development of the car. They will accomplish this by investing 42.5 million yen, or about 375,000 dollars, in the project over the next three years.
The project members have so far relied on crowdfunding and other means of financing. But the investment will resolve the funding shortage.
The engineers want to successfully develop a manned flying car by January 2019. They hope to use it to light the cauldron at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Paralympics.
Toyota says it wants to explore new possibilities by supporting the project. This comes at a time when firms are seeking to develop
self-driving car technologies and other advanced technologies.
US and European venture companies are also accelerating their efforts to produce flying cars as next-generation vehicles.
