Toyota flying car for 2020

There's a common view that flying cars and airborne personal mobility devices are pie in the sky stuff. But now that the world's second-largest car-maker has confirmed its involvement in aerial transport, the idea may yet take off.

"Within Toyota, we are advancing broad research and development on ways of transportation — including aerial solutions — that can lead to a prosperous society in the future," the company told USAToday.com.

It's understood that Toyota's goal is to show off a compact flying car piloted by a human – potentially an athlete – that will deliver the Olympic torch to launch 2020 Tokyo Olympic games during the opening ceremony.

The thinking within Toyota, which was caught patenting a flying car design a year ago, goes beyond just a cool party trick for the Olympics, the company statement suggesting it could be looking to commercialise the technology but is undecided at present.

A short video featuring Japanese start-up company, Cartivator Resource Management, in which Toyota has invested $400,000 to kick start the project, doesn't inspire confidence in the technology at this stage. The basic-looking large drone flies briefly before bending awkwardly as it hits the ground.

Nevertheless, Toyota and Cartivator reckon they'll have a prototype flying car -- that will be able to fly with a pilot on board -- ready to rock in 2019, followed by the final vehicle in 2020.

Tsubasa Nakamura, project leader at Cartivator, posted on his blog that Toyota's involvement was a big coup. "I really appreciate Toyota group companies, and other companies or individuals supporting us so far. We are able to accelerate our development because of this support."

There are a number of companies already inviting customers to put deposits down on flying cars, including Dutch company Pal-V, France's Airbus and AeroMobil from Slovakia. US company Terrafugia has been also working on its so-called flying car since 2011, but both these vehicles require an aircraft runway and a pilot's licence.

Uber has launched its own big-budget flying taxi venture which was labelled a ploy by some quarters to focus attention away from its internal strife and legal battles with Google.

The cashed-up ride-sharing company that's working with Volvo to develop autonomous cars said in April that it will launch a VTOL or vertical take off and landing airborne taxi that costs the same as an UberX ride. It's scheduled to debut at the 2020 World Expo in Dubai.

Toyota's interest in flying cars will re-focus attention on the emerging technology, which would likely be automated rather than human-piloted, but the biggest hurdle is likely to be the complex air traffic control system required to ensure safety.

That said, cities full of autonomous cars will also require complex vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication systems to maintain safety, leading some observers to suggest that flying cars could rapidly supersede self-driving cars as a primary means of mass commuting.

What do you think – will flying cars become reality one day soon, or is Toyota betting on the wrong horse? Feel free to comment below.