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Japan aims to build prototype flying cars in 2019

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Better to spend on daily household things and make it profit worldwide. There are lot of useful innovation in Japanese Technology Exhibition but it's only in Tokyo. Japanese brands need to learn marketing and be global brand like in the 80s, 90s and compete with Apple & Samsung.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, a full size quadcopter. I was thinking about that last week for a full size one as well. Then, what if one of the propeller gave in? The whole craft would be spinning uncontrollably. How do the occupant(s) escape when the craft is falling. An plane could glide and helicopter could perform auto-gyro to land, a quad would just drop straight down.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Doremon propeller hats ?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The government should not be wasting our money on this. No one asked for this but we have to pay for it and we won't be able to even use them. Fire these idiot politicians.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This will not work. It will be way too loud and cause noise pollution.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The government expects flying vehicles to be used for leisure activities and cargo transportation in the 2020s, and also for transportation in rural areas.

Whenever I visited rural areas in Japan, I found the roads are rather narrow and felt they need to do something about it. That was a decade or so ago. But I changed my mind a few years ago: cars will be flying soon anyway.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

People here can barely drive safely as it is! It'll be decades before the general public has these!

Will be self driving won't they?

I think Matt is right here. These cars, if they are indeed developed will be self driving. I can't really see this going any other way.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It’s a amazing how many posters expect all questions should have been answered before they even need to be asked.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It seems the Blade Runner is showing in Japanese cinema now or something... I get it that Japan wants to show off for the upcoming OI as a tech hub and stuff but this is just ridiculous..

-How much will one unit cost?

-What licence will be required, pilot or drivers?

-It's electric so what about power consumption?

-Navigation can be hacked, who takes the responsibility if someone flies your car into a building?

-If something in the car fails and it crashes onto Shibuya's crossing will they ban this technology completely?

-Where do you park it? (Japan doesn't really have much of parking space, heck they even burn their dead because they have no place to bury them)

-Japan will rush something in a year that took other companies around the globe a decade to achieve?

-What will be the flying range?

 also for transportation in rural areas

ahem, right, sure... If Bill Gates lives there then maybe, I don't see anyone using super expensive flying car to deliver a package to someone in middle of rural Gifu or Shizuoka...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Might I suggest that the designer puts the brake and the accelerator a REALLY long way apart, so that 85 year olds have to think of a new excuse for mowing pedestrians down?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The phrase "hoping to put the technology into practical use" might mean Japan could succeed in producing a prototype but whether it is practical is another matter. In reality, the authority will have to deal with new issues, such as drink flying (the case Katsutoshi Jitsukawa was caught almost 10 times over the legal limit the night before he was due to fly from London's Heathrow Airport last month), flying without licence, committing suicide, technical breakdown, drug trafficking, ... and worst of all, terrorism.

Unless Japanese manufacturers produce flying machines purely for export or just a way to boost their "know how" technology, I do not believe it is practical to use these in Japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yeah sure ...flying cars ...

Wheres my hover bord ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I suppose that there is nothing wrong with dreaming.

I hope that it will not be JAL pilots testing them.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is another case of techno-triumpalism, where just because you can you do even though it's really dumb. Just because we're engineering capable doesn't mean it makes sense. I think it's what happens when we are too long alone away from reality or have cabin fever

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Sorry but it's really impractical. You can make a keyboard smaller than your hands too, but that's impractical too. What is going to make a city and country more sustainable is urban planning design where bicycles and walking are perfect for local trips and trains for regional ones. Japan is already there.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

People here can barely drive safely as it is! It'll be decades before the general public has these!

Japan has a singularly good record in terms of traffic safety and traffic fatalities. As someone who has driven in the US, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, France, and Cyprus as well as Japan, I can say that Japanese drivers are generally quite good. I'd far rather drive in Tokyo than London and I would never think of cycling in London.

As for “flying cars”, this idea has been around for decades and it's just as absurd now as when it was first put forward. The government might as well waste money on genetic engineering to develop flying pigs while it is at it.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

What will happen to passengers when the car battery power was run out or lost during the car was flying?

Gasoline cars can break down on the middle of the road. It's possible the flying car can break down in the air.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

There are two ways a flying car could be made (as opposed to airplanes):

1) drone/helicopter style (fenestroned to protect kids and neighbours from getting cut in the blades.

2) acoustic propulsion (lift) - scientists have already used at high enough frequencies not to bother humans (dogs, well...). It may not get to 100 metres, but its a good start.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Luckily we don't have a ground traffic control for cars and have to radio to the tower letting them know we're taxiing out of the driveway and so forth. Neither do we have to submit drive plans and get them approved. I'm rather glad we don't have a Federal Land Administration as we do with an Federal Aviation Administration. I'm sure that flying vehicles can get by on just hovering stationary traffic lights and common sense. Like my land car, I don't want to submit plans ahead of time if I just wanna pick up some groceries in my flying car.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

well i guess there are no red traffic lights to jump, and no zebra crossings to not stop at, which japanese drivers never stop at anyway while on the ground... worst drivers ever here.

let's hope for everyone's safety these flying cars don't take off.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Someone in Tokyo likes the Jestsons.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

A joking govt can only produce a joking idea. If a car can fly, it is not a car.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

If it can't break, turn around, and "fluctuate" mid-air, then it isn't a car; it's just another airplane.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

“Meet Jorji Jetson...”

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Border less between airplanes and cars is coming soon!

Top priority is to be safe, second to none.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Just last week new laws banning Drones over much of Tokyo were passed. So where do flying cars stand? Thinking an old man in a desperate attempt to scratch some relevance to his pathetic political life, thought hey! The Jetsons could do it? It's not like we have a system to regulate it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Strangerland: And?????!!

Yeah. There seemed to be an implication that there was a problem, but no explanation of what that may be.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Do we really need this?

What the world can really use now is more carless drivers.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They are a bit behind on this, there are a number of companies across the world already developing these, from small startups to major airospace corporations.

What they propose to start with (though in an unrealistically tight time frame) is no different to a light aircraft. Where so called flying cars will offer something truly different is in the large urban environment, but the air traffic control for large numbers of small vehicles in a tight space will be a nightmare. Basically it will only work with autonomous vehicles managed by an AI traffic control system. So this is still rather a long way off.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Japan aims to build prototype flying cars in 2019"

That would coincide with the flying cars in 2019 in Bladerunner, which took place in the Kabukicho section of Los Angeles.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

People here can barely drive safely as it is! It'll be decades before the general public has these!

Ok... and?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

People here can barely drive safely as it is! It'll be decades before the general public has these!

Will be self driving won't they?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

People here can barely drive safely as it is! It'll be decades before the general public has these!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

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