Tech firm tests drone-like flying car

It’s like “Back to the Future,” but real: a prototype of a flying car hovered 10 feet above the ground for about a minute in Japan on Monday.

Designed for autonomous delivery flights, the early prototype looks more like a large drone than a typical car. Made by NEC Corp., a global technology company based in Tokyo, it’s batterypowered with four propellers and designed for self-flying deliveries.

According to news reports, the vehicle hovered about 10 feet off the ground inside a cage without passengers at a company facility in Abiko, Japan, a Tokyo suburb.

“We at NEC believe that a Japanese electronic maker NEC Corp. displays its “flying car,” a dronelike machine with propellers.

revolution of travel centered on flying cars will occur,” NEC Corporation Vice President Norihiko Ishiguro told the

Associated Press. “When that time comes, we want to provide technology and services as a management base.”

The technology still has a few kinks to work out, like battery life, safety and regulation. But the Evtol — or “electric vertical takeoff and landing” — technology is supposed to be cheaper, quieter and more accessible than helicopters, and could be used to bypass traffic in heavily congested cities, transport cargo or just offer recreational travel.

The Japanese government has already built a test course for flying cars in Fukushima, a site that was hit in 2011 by a tsunami, earthquake and nuclear accident, according to the Associated Press.

It’s the latest development in the global race to create autonomous flying vehicles, which includes Uber, Airbus, Volocopter and Boeing.