Can flying car win race to light Tokyo 2020 Olympic flame?
A Japanese team backed by Toyota is working on a vehicle that could end traffic jams as we know them – and is confident of rising to the occasion in just three years’ time
Ryutaro Mori hopes to use the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to wow people around the world. If all goes to plan, a flying car built by his Cartivator group will swoop over the Olympic stadium and light the flame to mark the beginning of the XXXII Olympiad.
While Beijing set out to dazzle in 2008 and London opted for humour four years later – when Mr Bean played piano and “the Queen” parachuted into the arena – Japan intends to use technology as its theme for the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world, and a flying car would help it set the gold standard for opening ceremonies.
The Cartivator team faces a tough deadline if it is to rise to the occasion three years from now.
Even so, Mori is so confident of success he predicts that after the ceremony it will take his team just a further five years before it can launch the company’s first commercial flying cars in skies around the world.
“The world is increasingly urbanised, city traffic is getting worse and worse, roads are too expensive to build and maintain,” he said “In addition, the lack of road infrastructure has acted as a bottleneck for the economic development of developing nations. Flying cars will be one viable solution to these transportation and economic issues and will enable people to get from point A to point B faster than ever.”