Imagine Hitching Your Next Ride Across Town in This Personal Flying Vehicle

We talk about eVTOLs, or electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, all the time on this channel. Well, today we want to talk about one that comes to us from Japan. This is a prototype eVTOL from Japanese startup SkyDrive, making its first public flight back in 2020 during a demonstration. The pilot flies the prototype about six feet above the ground and hovers for about four minutes.

The company has recently announced a partnership with Suzuki to develop a flying car, which they hope will be ready in time to shuttle passengers around at the 2025 Osaka World Expo. We thought this would be a good time to find out a little bit more about SkyDrive and its technology. The prototype we've seen is dubbed Model SD03, a one-seater all-electric aircraft powered by a battery and four pairs of propellers. Each rotor has its own motor, so if one malfunctions, the other seven can still operate.

It's about four meters long and four meters wide, roughly the same size as two parked cars while the pilot does have most of the control. A flight computer handles flight stability according to SkyDrive. It can carry a maximum of 400 kilograms and has a maximum cruise speed of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour. The company calls it the world's smallest eVTOL. If you were at CES this year, you may have even seen the SD03.

This was just a few months after some inaccurate reports on the internet about SkyDrive and its bid for flight certification in Japan. Some reported that SkyDrive had received Japan's first certification for a personal flying vehicle for its next flying vehicle. This was misreported; SkyDrive had merely applied for the certification with what you could consider Japan's version of the FAA since then, there has been progress.

Last month, SkyDrive said it came to an agreement with regulators on a certification process, and again, the SD03 is just a prototype to prove SkyDrive's technology. To find out what's next, we talked with Yugo Fukuhara, who heads up SkyDrive's air mobility division. Our vision is uh, to transfer people from anywhere to anywhere. Many other divitol companies are going in the direction of longer range from city to city and four or five passengers.

But our vision is to be focused on personal transport with a compact simple and easy-to-maintain vehicle inside the city, especially in the area of very congested traffic jams on the ground. That's what SkyDrive hopes to achieve by 2025 with its SD-05. We don't know exactly what it will look like yet, but concept photos from SkyDrive released last fall suggest it could fit the flying car title with a drive mode in addition to flight mode.

Hugo confirmed that the SD05 will carry a pilot and one passenger. As for a flight range, our truck though our operational range will be around 10 kilometers. Our flight time will be around 10 minutes. Hugo told me they expect initially the SD05 to cost between half a million and a million U.S dollars. At that cost, they don't expect a lot of interest from consumers.

SkyDrive is really setting its sights on the market for air taxi services right now. The company is just aiming for certification in Japan but has plans to expand globally including into the U.S. Now, there's a lot of eVTOL companies out there, and we've seen a lot of promised launch dates and a lot of delays. Do you think SkyDrive will hit that date of 2025? Let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video. Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to CNET for more what-the-future videos.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enimagine hitching your next ride across town in this personal flying vehicle we talk about ev tolls or electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles all the time on this channel well today the one i want to talk to you about comes to us from japan this is a prototype ev toll from japanese startup skydrive making its first public flight back in 2020 during the demonstration the pilot flies the prototype about six feet above the ground and hovered for about four minutes you may have heard about skydrive recently they just announced a partnership with suzuki to develop a flying car they hope will be ready in time to shuttle passengers around at the 2025 osaka world expo and i thought this would be a good time to find out a little bit more about skydrive and its technology the prototype we've seen dubbed model sd03 is a one-seater all-electric aircraft powered by a battery and four pairs of propellers each rotor has its own motor so if one malfunctions the other seven can still operate it's about four meters long four meters wide roughly the same size as two parked cars while the pilot does have most of the control a flight computer handles flight stability according to skydrive it can carry a maximum of 400 kilograms and has a maximum cruise speed of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour the company calls it the world's smallest evito now if you were at ces this year you may have even seen the sd03 this was just a few months after some inaccurate reports on the internet about skydrive and its bid for flight certification in japan some reported that skydrive had received japan's first certification for a personal flying vehicle for its next flying vehicle to be clear this was misreported skydrive had merely applied for the certification with what you could consider japan's version of the faa since then there has been progress there last month skydrive said it came to an agreement with regulators on a certification process and again the sdo3 is just a prototype to prove skydrive's technology to find out what's next i talked with yugo fukuhara he heads up skydrive's air mobility division our vision is uh to transfer the people from anywhere to anywhere many other divitol company is going with direction of longer range from city to city and four or five passengers but our vision is to be focused on personal transport with a compact simple and easy to maintenance and the lower operating cost of vehicle inside the city especially in the area of the very congested traffic jam on the ground that vehicle the company hopes to be flying passengers in by 2025 is the sd-05 we don't know exactly what it will look like but it could be something like this these are concept photos from skydrive released last fall of what it called the sd x a two seater ev tool that really does fit the flying car title sits on three wheels suggesting it has a drive mode in addition to a flight mode hugo did confirm with me the sd05 will carry a pilot and one passenger and as for a flight range our truck though our operational range will be around 10 kilometers so our flight time will be around 10 minutes hugo told me they expect initially the sd05 to cost between half a million and a million u.s dollars so at that cost they don't expect a lot of interest from consumers skydrive is really setting its sites on the market for air taxi services right now the company is just aiming for certification in japan but they do have plans to expand globally including into the u.s now there's a lot of ev toll companies out there and we've seen a lot of promised launch dates and a lot of delays so do you think that skydrive is gonna hit that date of 2025 let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to cnet for more what the future videos now if you want to learn about some other ev tools check out these videos over here that's going to do it for me and i will see you in the futureimagine hitching your next ride across town in this personal flying vehicle we talk about ev tolls or electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles all the time on this channel well today the one i want to talk to you about comes to us from japan this is a prototype ev toll from japanese startup skydrive making its first public flight back in 2020 during the demonstration the pilot flies the prototype about six feet above the ground and hovered for about four minutes you may have heard about skydrive recently they just announced a partnership with suzuki to develop a flying car they hope will be ready in time to shuttle passengers around at the 2025 osaka world expo and i thought this would be a good time to find out a little bit more about skydrive and its technology the prototype we've seen dubbed model sd03 is a one-seater all-electric aircraft powered by a battery and four pairs of propellers each rotor has its own motor so if one malfunctions the other seven can still operate it's about four meters long four meters wide roughly the same size as two parked cars while the pilot does have most of the control a flight computer handles flight stability according to skydrive it can carry a maximum of 400 kilograms and has a maximum cruise speed of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour the company calls it the world's smallest evito now if you were at ces this year you may have even seen the sd03 this was just a few months after some inaccurate reports on the internet about skydrive and its bid for flight certification in japan some reported that skydrive had received japan's first certification for a personal flying vehicle for its next flying vehicle to be clear this was misreported skydrive had merely applied for the certification with what you could consider japan's version of the faa since then there has been progress there last month skydrive said it came to an agreement with regulators on a certification process and again the sdo3 is just a prototype to prove skydrive's technology to find out what's next i talked with yugo fukuhara he heads up skydrive's air mobility division our vision is uh to transfer the people from anywhere to anywhere many other divitol company is going with direction of longer range from city to city and four or five passengers but our vision is to be focused on personal transport with a compact simple and easy to maintenance and the lower operating cost of vehicle inside the city especially in the area of the very congested traffic jam on the ground that vehicle the company hopes to be flying passengers in by 2025 is the sd-05 we don't know exactly what it will look like but it could be something like this these are concept photos from skydrive released last fall of what it called the sd x a two seater ev tool that really does fit the flying car title sits on three wheels suggesting it has a drive mode in addition to a flight mode hugo did confirm with me the sd05 will carry a pilot and one passenger and as for a flight range our truck though our operational range will be around 10 kilometers so our flight time will be around 10 minutes hugo told me they expect initially the sd05 to cost between half a million and a million u.s dollars so at that cost they don't expect a lot of interest from consumers skydrive is really setting its sites on the market for air taxi services right now the company is just aiming for certification in japan but they do have plans to expand globally including into the u.s now there's a lot of ev toll companies out there and we've seen a lot of promised launch dates and a lot of delays so do you think that skydrive is gonna hit that date of 2025 let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to cnet for more what the future videos now if you want to learn about some other ev tools check out these videos over here that's going to do it for me and i will see you in the future\n"