Osaka Releases Flying Car Road Map

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Osaka Prefectural Government has released its awaited “Road Map” on the development of the eVTOL industry.

It is a 27-page PDF document, which is at this juncture available on the prefecture’s website, but only in Japanese language.

The part of the report highlighted most prominently by the domestic news media was the timeline envisioned by the prefectural government.

Vertiport construction is to begin next year and to be completed in 2024.

The next few years will also be occupied by various demonstration events and an effort to educate local residents, preparing the ground for social acceptance of flying vehicles in the urban environment.

As has been previously noted, it is the 2025 World Expo on the manmade island of Yumeshima in Osaka Bay at which the age of the eVTOL will be proclaimed to the nation and the world.

The Road Map goes on to specify that even after the World Expo closes, eVTOLs should continue to run along various routes in Osaka for sightseeing and other purposes.

Around 2030, the Road Map foresees a gradual shift toward automatic flight without pilots, as well as on-demand flight based on user reservations. Moreover, this is likely to be the period when eVTOL flight areas expanded from central Osaka to the whole of the Kansai region.

Finally, around 2035, Osaka Prefecture expects that eVTOLs will come into daily use by a significant portion of the population, no longer seen as a curiosity or something out of the ordinary.

The Road Map explains that the prefectural government’s interest in proactively promoting the eVTOL industry derives from the fact that these vehicles, when compared to helicopters or conventional aircraft, are likely to become less noisy, better for the climate, and cheaper than the existing options. Vertiports will also require much less ground space than the major airports in use today.

As the report puts it, “As a means for daily and short-distance transportation, eVTOL have the potential to bring new value to people’s lives and the towns they live in. They are expected to be used for a wide range of applications such as urban transportation, tourism and leisure, critical care, and disaster response.

The prefecture also has its eye on some of the positive knock-on effects that might attend the development of the eVTOL industry, such as the creation of new manufacturing and service jobs in the local economy.

Specifically, these could include the training of eVTOL pilots and mechanics to support commercial operations, aircraft and airframe maintenance jobs, and new opportunities for the insurance business.

On the same day as the Road Map was released, the Osaka Prefectural Government also hosted the 6th meeting of the Osaka Roundtable on a Moving Revolution Society in the Sky.

This event included presentations by a number of private firms that are making their own proposals. Namely, there were presentations by SkyDrive (an eVTOL developer), ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines (which are collaborating with foreign eVTOL makers to bring eVTOL services to Japan); as well as FaroStar and Mitsui & Co. (which are promoting air traffic management systems).

The Osaka Roundtable on a Moving Revolution Society in the Sky was launched on November 17, 2020, with the Osaka Prefectural Government and 41 private companies and organizations as its inaugural members.

Osaka’s initiative was in turn based upon the Public-Private Conference for Future Air Mobility, an initiative jointly launched in August 2018 by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

Osaka Prefecture has a population of over 8.8 million people and is the traditional rival within Japan of the capital city, Tokyo. The city’s leaders believe that the eVTOLs can help them take the national lead in a strategic forward-looking industry.