2020 Olympic Torch Will Be Lit By Flying Car From Toyota

The 2020 Olympics is starting to trend as a hot topic despite the fact that it’s two years away, but there’s another reason why people are looking forward to it now. It has to do with Toyota’s mission to create a commercial flying car, which will then be used to light the famous Olympic Torch. The sporting event will be held in Tokyo, Japan this cycle, which puts the venue right in the company’s backyard.

After announcing that it would be working with Nvidia to develop its own self-driving technology, Toyota announced that it would be backing a startup called Cartivator, which is developing a new flying car system. Called the "Skydrive," it’s a project that’s being worked on by over 30 volunteer tech experts and is being led by Tokushima University’s Masafumi Miwa, Engadget reports.

Miwa is basically a drone expert and considering that flying cars are just drones in a bigger form, it’s easy to see how his expertise would add to the success rate of the project. In any case, the reason for Toyota backing the startup is to produce commercial-grade flying cars by next year. This would then prime the public for a spectacle during the 2020 Olympics when the 2.9-meter-long vehicle signals the start of the games.

Toyota’s support for the startup comes in the form of a $353,000 investment and the help of its engineers. The small company has even been getting support from enthusiastic private backers who have been contributing to a crowdfunding campaign for the project, Futurism reports. It has reached $22,000, so far.

Of course, the Japanese car giant isn’t the only big industry name that has taken an interest in flying cars. Uber actually has plans of being the first company in the world to offer flying taxis, just as it planned to do with self-driving cabs.