![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2020\/08\/flying-car-with-human-board-300x158.jpg\")
<\/div>Flying Machine<\/h2>
A Japanese company called SkyDrive just conducted a successful flight test of its “flying car” vehicle — with a human pilot on board.<\/p>
The vehicle, which looks sort of like a cross between a snowmobile and a quadrotor drone, hovered several feet off the ground for four minutes, AP News <\/a><\/em>reports<\/a>. While it sounds like a small feat, very few eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) projects have ever actually made it off the ground<\/a> — and fewer yet<\/a> have done so with a human in the pilot’s seat.<\/p> Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who runs SkyDrive, told AP News<\/em> that he’s optimistic about the future of eVTOL vehicles and believes that they could drive down the cost of exports or revolutionize personal transport.<\/p> “Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful has succeeded with a person on board,” Fukuzawa told AP News<\/em>. “I hope many people will want to ride it and feel safe.”<\/p> But there’s a lot of engineering that needs to happen between now and then. Flying cars can’t yet stay aloft for nearly long enough to be useful, and the battery packs<\/a> necessary to do so are heavy and expensive.<\/p> “If [eVTOL vehicles] cost $10 million, no one is going to buy them,” Sanjiv Singh, a Carnegie Mellon University roboticist who’s working on his own eVTOL project, told AP News<\/em>. “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.”<\/p> READ MORE: <\/strong>Japan’s ‘flying car’ gets off ground, with a person aboard<\/a> [AP News<\/em>]<\/p> More on flying cars: <\/strong>Boeing’s Flying Car Just Completed Its First Test Flight<\/a><\/em><\/p> The post Japanese Company Tests a Flying Car — With a Human On Board<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> The rest is here: Flying Machine A Japanese company called SkyDrive just conducted a successful flight test of its \u201cflying car\u201d vehicle \u2014 with a human pilot on board. The vehicle, which looks sort of like a cross between a snowmobile and a quadrotor drone, hovered several feet off the ground for four minutes, AP News reports . Continue reading Taking Off<\/h2>
Mild Turbulence<\/h2>
Japanese Company Tests a Flying Car — With a Human On Board<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"