Toyota is joining the list of firms trying to develop flying cars. The Japanese automotive manufacturer is financing the flying car project, dubbed as the Cartivator. The team plans to debut the flying car in the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020.

Since project leader, Tsubasa Nakamura, won a business contest in 2012, thirty of the Japanese automotive manufacturer's young employees have been working on the flying car project for free. Toyota and its group of companies will invest about $352,982 in Cartivator. Until now, the group of companies has relied mostly on online crowdfunding as well as other financing methods.

Cartivator plans to develop a prototype for a manned test flight as soon as early 2019. The flying car will be commercialized in 2020, the year Tokyo, Japan will host the Summer Olympics. It has been said that the flying car will light the flame stand of the Tokyo Olympics, Nikkei reported.

A promotional video graphic shows a little car lowering its retractable wings before having a flight around Tokyo. Then, the vehicle lit the flame at the Olympic stadium. Toyota's flying car is expected to have a top flight speed of around 100 km or 62 miles an hour, and can hover some 10 meters off the ground.

The Skydrive flying car is designed to have a top land speed around 150 km an hour. The SkyDrive will have four sets of propellers and the vehicle will be the world's smallest flying car, Phys Org reported.

A scale model of the Skydrive flying car has already taken flight, and the investment of the Japanese automotive manufacturer will go toward the development of a full-size prototype. After the flying car will debut at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Cartivator has targeted the first consumer sales in 2023, followed by a large-scale production of the Skydrive in 2030.

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