Ever since the first cars arrived on the world’s roads, people have been wanting to fly them. This dream seems not to be far because Toyota is considering building an actual Hovercar! In an interview at Bloomberg’s Next Big Thing Summit in San Francisco, Hiroyoshi Yoshiki, the managing officer with Toyota’s technical administration group, said that the company had been studying a similar idea of flying cars at one of its “most advanced” research and development areas, but cautioned that the concept was not like actually flying around in three-dimensional space. Instead, he said, the plan is to get the car “a little bit away” from the road, similar to a hovercraft.
The reason behind the concept of a hover car is that it would nullify the road friction and enhance efficiency. This doesn’t seem a simple process. Yoshiki declined to elaborate on when the company began investigating the idea, how far along it is, or if it ever plans to bring it to market.
Toyota’s revelation seems to have had a great impact on the summit’s audience. No solid plans have been made to build a prototype, It is unknown how close such an idea is to reality. So we wouldn’t expect this science fiction to turn into science fact any sooner.
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