Japanese engineers want to build a flying car to light the torch at the 2020 Olympics

A group of Japanese engineers have the long-term goal of building a flying car, and have set the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as their target unveiling.

The outlandish project has been in the works since 2014 and is called SkyDrive.

In short it is a large drone, big enough to be able to take a seated human and able to drive along on terra firma as well as take to the skies at will.

Not only that, but the team behind the design hope to have it ready for the summer Olympics in Japan in 2020, with the final moments of the video showing a render of the SkyDrive rolling into the stadium before taking off to light the Olympic flame.

The most recent image on the firm's website does little to boost confidence in the viability of the project. Taken back in October 2015, it is captioned 'preparation for test flight', with no word on how that flight went. But given the lack of updates since, it may not have gone well.

However, there is plenty of hope in the renders in the video – and indeed on Cartivator's website, where one image shows an artist's impression of a motorway of the future complete with SkyDrives – that a world of flying cars might be with us one day.

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Source: Japanese engineers want to build a flying car to light the torch at the 2020 Olympics