Singapore’s war for talent remains fierce despite a more upbeat outlook on the economy, with employers struggling to find suitable candidates to fill positions. 

Employers in Singapore are forced to rethink their recruitment practices as job vacancies are at a three-year high. 

According to Jobstreet’s 2021 Job Report, the Computer / IT industry has seen the hiring appetite return to pre-pandemic levels despite a 20.3% dip in 2020 — with this number expected to continue growing. 

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Singapore’s war for talent shows more roles require specific specialist expertise

Employers look for fresh talent to fill their open positions as the economy improves. This is to keep up with the rapid changes in technology and the fast-evolving workplace. However, they face two big problems: The job market is flooded with CVs, and most potential candidates do not have the experience or skills required. 

Highly skilled IT professionals are sought-after across all industries with the imminent growth of the information technology industry and rapid adoption of digitalization. 

This highlights the importance of promoting reskilling and upskilling among Singapore’s workforce to meet changing job landscape needs and as more roles require specific specialist expertise.

Tech Talent Expectations

The 2021 Tech Talent Expectation Survey, commissioned by Randstad Singapore and independently conducted by YouGov, showed that only 48% of ICT respondents receive job interview requests at least once a month despite the high demand for tech talent in Singapore.

It also showed that IT candidates are incredibly selective about the types of companies and jobs that they want to work in, especially if they have in-demand skills and plenty of options to choose from. 

Decisive motivating factors for active job seekers include working for tech companies at the forefront of innovation and abundant opportunities for innovative trial technologies. Young tech workers are the most likely to accept job interviews, with 29% of them accepting interview requests 75% to 99% of the time.

Singapore’s technology sector is bracing itself for an exodus of talents as young professionals turn down job offers despite attractive compensation packages and benefits.

One of the reasons for these rejected offers is that the interviewer did not understand the job scope or role they were hiring for. Meanwhile, an overwhelming 96% want to switch their specialisation if given a choice. 

Singapore tech skills gap

In the coming years, tech firms will require a range of skills to promote Singapore and build innovative technology platforms. They will need talent who have experience with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and professionals with skills in data science and cybersecurity. 

According to a new report commissioned by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Singapore will need 1.2 million additional digital workers by 2025 to remain competitive. 

However, Singapore’s skills in the ICT sector are lacking in “cybersecurity” as the top specialisation followed by “artificial technology, automation and robotics” and “data science/analytics”.

While technology experts, business leaders and policymakers have identified cloud architecture design, cybersecurity, software operations support, web/software/game development, and large-scale data modelling as among Singapore’s top five in-demand skills by 2025.

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The automotive industry has entered into an intense era of collaboration among carmakers, technology giants, and even software start-ups, among others.

This trend comes as countries, including China, accelerate into increased usage of EVs and AVs. Numerous partnerships have sprouted up in the past year, adding density and life to this ecosystem. 

Among Chinese automakers themselves, a handful of significant partnerships were made to accelerate the developments of EVs and AVs within the country.

In fact, China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech’s ambitions in the world of car making. 

Take tech giant Baidu for an example, just 11 months after announcing that it is collaborating with automaker Geely to start a new company to build connected, autonomous electric vehicles, Baidu, which runs Chinese top search engine and a mapping app, announced that they would start mass production of its first “robot” EVs in 2023.

JiDU Auto, the electric vehicle venture between Baidu and Geely, would make EVs that are of the autonomous Level-four (L4), which needs no human intervention, Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li said during the company’s Baidu’s annual developers’ conference on Monday. 

JiDU was established only in March this year and in a mere 207 days, the venture reached the stage of developing intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit for a SIMU car.

This has set a new record in the industry, according to the CEO — last August, the internet company had launched a robocar with L5 autonomous driving capabilities. 

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This time, the automotive robot, deemed by Baidu as the ultimate form of vehicle transportation in the future, will demonstrate JiDU’s three aspects of their product philosophy.

First, the vehicle will have L4 autonomous driving capabilities to empower freedom of movement.

Second, the robot vehicle can communicate naturally with human beings thanks to the accurate recognition of human-vehicle interaction and speech semantics. 

Finally, the robocar is expected to have the capability to self-learn and self-iterate, which will continue to study user habits and improve user experience based on the habit data.

According to Baidu’s vision, intelligent transportation is the result of the deep integration of technologies as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, and cloud computing into the transportation segment, based on autonomous driving, smart vehicles, and intelligent roads. 

The company also said that intelligent transportation can cut traffic accidents by 90%. Baidu’s autonomous driving capabilities have made rapid progress in recent months. As autonomous driving technologies develop, these vehicles will eventually be safer than human drivers, the company claims.

According to reports, with 115,000 rides provided in the third quarter of the year, Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing platform Apollo Go has become the world’s largest autonomous mobility service provider.

Just last month, Baidu and self-driving startup Pony.ai won approval to launch paid, driverless robo taxi services that will see the firms deploy not more than 100 vehicles in Beijing.

According to Baidu’s statement, it would be its Apollo Go service’s first commercial deployment on open roads. The company is aiming for the Apollo Go service to be in 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030, Li said during its latest quarterly results.

Besides Baidu, Geely and Pony.ai, Chinese electric-car maker BYD Co. is also apparently building a joint venture with tech startup Momenta to develop autonomous driving technology, according to Reuters.

It is said that BYD and Momenta have established a 100 million yuan three-way partnership to deploy autonomous driving capabilities throughout BYD automobile mannequin strains.

Known as DiPi Intelligent Mobility Co, the new partnership will combine BYD’s expertise in the auto sector with Momenta’s experience in smart driving algorithms, the startup said in a statement on Monday.

Reports are claiming that the preliminary scope of labor will embrace deploying “Level 2 plus” autonomous driving functionality throughout some car mannequin strains.

Separately, even SAIC Mobility, a unit of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor and Momenta, started providing autonomous robotaxi test rides to the general public in a Shanghai district as a part of a trial, earlier this month.

The post More Chinese automakers collaborating on EVs, AVs appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Around a week ago, Chinese electric car start-up Nio unveiled its second sedan, considered as the latest competitor to Tesla Inc.

While the latter may be the world’s best-known manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) – Chinese brands are quickly catching up. This time, adding to the list of companies that are giving the American EV giant a run for its money is mobile tech giant Huawei Technologies Co.

Huawei, best known for its telecommunications products and smartphones, isn’t making electric cars of their own but is working with automakers on car technology such as autonomous driving.

At its maiden launch, Huawei introduced the Aito M5–the first model under the Aito brand, (an acronym for “adding intelligence to auto”). 

Huawei’s consumer and business group executive director Richard Yu at the company’s winter product launch event yesterday said that the Aito M5 is part of automaker Seres.

Seres’ cars have previously only incorporated Huawei components, but not Huawei’s design.

That said, Aito M5 is the first car running on Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system (OS) and it runs on both electricity and fuel, according to Yu.

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Prior to this, Huawei had collaborated with Chinese automobile companies to launch cars like the SERES Hybrid sedan and the Avatar 11 electric SUV.

That said, this is not Huawei’s first foray into the automobile industry.

How do Huawei and Aito M5 come together?

Integrating the HarmonyOS into the new Seres car in China is a concept that is sought after by many electric car start-ups.

Many reckon that automobiles will eventually grow into a role not unlike the one smartphones play in the lives of consumers.

Reports quoting Yu’s one-hour presentation highlighted the features of Aito M5 which include peak power and driving range that is better than Tesla’s Model Y. 

Unlike Tesla’s cars, however, the Aito M5 is not purely powered by electricity as it has a fuel tank for extending driving range when the battery runs out of power.

“This model also has the ultimate cornering performance, which is stronger than McLaren. Its performance surpasses many fuel vehicles and surpasses many pure electric vehicles,” added Yu.

The Aito M5 interface also provides advanced sense and intelligent functions, “surpassing all models and car companies, such as L2 + level intelligent driving assistance, HarmonyOS smart split-screen”, and others.

To top it off, Huawei’s OS will integrate some of its smartphone-oriented technology into the vehicle. A Huawei smartwatch, for example, can be used to start the Aito M5.

Huawei’s push into electric cars signals a major shift in business focus for Huawei after two years of US sanctions that have cut its access to key supply chains, forcing it to sell a part of its smartphone business.

Even mobile giants such as Xiaomi Corp have been stepping up efforts in the world’s biggest market for such vehicles, as Beijing heavily promotes greener vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.

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Two years ago, Chinese electric-vehicle startup Nio Inc was nearing bankruptcy. A year later, it surged to become the world’s fourth most valuable automaker, surpassing General Motors Co. and Daimler. After being at the forefront of the country’s home-made effort to dominate the EV industry, the Chinese carmaker is now moving towards expanding into five new European countries by next year.

The first step Nio made under its expansion drive in the region was opening a showroom in Norway known as Nio House. Nio founder and CEO Li Bin said Nio will be ” in at least five European markets [in addition to Norway] by the end of 2022.” He shared the company’s ambitions for Europe in an earnings call earlier last month.

It is also fair to note that in Norway, one in every four customers who test-drove a Nio bought the car, a figure higher compared to China, according to Li. 

The Chinese EV maker’s European plan

In an article published recently by the Swedish Dagens Industri, Nio’s chief operating officer Lihong Qin told the publication that it will begin sales in Sweden at the end of 2022. That also means Sweden is one of five European countries Nio will enter in 2022 following its European market debut in Norway in September.

Then there is also Germany where Nio will begin sales next year, starting with its ET7 sedan. Nio currently sells the ES8 large SUV in Norway with plans to add the ET7 sedan, ES6 SUV and related coupe-styled EC6. To top it off, according to reports Nio is building four battery swap stations around the Norwegian capital of Oslo this year, with 12 more planned in other cities next year. The swaps are done in three minutes as a quicker alternative to charging.

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While Nio depicts Tesla’s direct sales model in which customers buy the car online, it has also built two multi-use showrooms in city centers called Nio House and another one in Oslo. Qin told Automotive News Europe in 2020 that success in Europe could prompt the company to produce locally,   “If we achieve very good sales in other regions then maybe we could consider local production in the future, but it’s still too early to say,” he said.

As a market, Europe is not a region that can be overlooked by automakers especially for those producing EVs. At this point, EVs and fossil-fuel alternatives sales are soaring in Europe as the bloc seeks to combat global warming. In fact, data shows that almost one in five vehicles sold in the European Union was an electric model during the third quarter this year.

Within the July to September period, EV sales made up 12.7% total new car sales in 18 major European markets, more than double the figure for the same period last year, which came to 6.1%, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Overall, the number of EVs sold during the quarter totaled 303,273, up 57% from a year earlier.

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Compared to other regions around the world, hyperautomation in the Asia Pacific, particularly ASEAN region, are becoming increasingly popular. In fact, Gartner’s top strategic technology trends for 2022 identifies hyperautomation as a key technology that enterprises will look into next year. Their research explains that hyperautomation enables accelerated growth and business resilience by rapidly identifying, vetting, and automating as many processes as possible.

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“Gartner research shows that the top-performing hyperautomation teams focus on three key priorities: improving the quality of work, speeding up business processes, and enhancing the agility of decision-making. Business technologists supported an average of 4.2 automation initiatives in the past year, too,” said David Groombridge, research vice president at Gartner.

With the market for software that enables hyperautomation predicted to reach nearly $860 billion by 2025 by Gartner as well, many businesses have still not maximized the value of their digital investments because they lack insight into how outdated processes hold back business operations. To apply automation that truly moves the needle, organizations need to understand how workflows across people, processes, and systems.

As such, RPA solution providers like IBM, UI Path, Automation Anywhere, Cyclone Robotics, and others have been developing various solutions for hyperautomation use cases, depending on an organization’s needs. With RPA and AI being the key technologies in enabling hyperautomation in enterprises, businesses need to ensure they can quickly identify process bottlenecks and automate solutions to help improve customer satisfaction, drive revenue growth, and improve cash flow and operating margins.

Hyperautomation use cases in APAC 

For Cyclone Robotics, RPA has evolved over the years from its basic stages to the current RPA+, which requires end-to-end process automation capabilities at the departmental level and will continue to advance to enterprise-level hyperautomation of the future. Case in point — their partnership with Sinolink Securities, an Asia-Pacific leading securities and investment management firm.

After Cyclone Robotics’ initial RPA products and applications were proven successful, Sinolink then began to broadly deploy RPA across the whole company. By 2021, more than 200 RPA operations have been successfully deployed in over 30 departments, achieving 100% execution accuracy with zero errors, 24/7 automated operations, and saving over 6,000 minutes of manpower every day.

Moving forward, Cyclone Robotics is working with Sinolink to establish its hyperautomatic middle office with Cyclone Robotics’ recent innovations, such as the aforementioned AI Skill Platform and CIRI. Sinolink can now look forward to a more deeply integrated RPA that adds value to its management, business, and collaborations, enabling it to explore more applications for automation.

Meanwhile, IBM has identified several industry-specific examples that also demonstrate the benefits of hyperautomation. In healthcare, there are many repetitive processes, contractual obligations, and regulations whereby the technology can be combined with natural language processing to automate services, speed processes, reduce costs and provide higher quality.

For the industrial sector, production facilities can use hyperautomation technologies along with business process management solutions to produce higher quality products at scale. Many industrial environments also use legacy systems and processes that could benefit from optimization.

And in financial services, hyperautomation, along with technologies like optical character recognition, can reduce manual intervention while ensuring high-quality results on front- and back-end processes. It can also aid economic recovery from the pandemic.

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According to a report from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Malaysia remains a key regional destination for high-value manufacturing and global services. This shows the enormous growth potential the nation has for those areas, and the continued need for industries to begin their digital transformation journey if they have not.

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The reality is though, for smart manufacturing to be successful, businesses need to first look to implementing smart systems.

“The fact that the manufacturing industry has tended to maintain legacy systems and processes. Since last year, businesses have faced new challenges in their work including supply chain disruptions, and new social distancing protocols, just to name a few, which have reduced their efficiency and in the long run, impacted production,” said Steven Loh, Senior Sales Director, Relationship Segment at Lenovo Malaysia.

Steven explains that businesses must evaluate their manufacturing chain to keep up with the challenges, but it is not a matter of browsing a catalog and picking out the latest technology to implement. There are several considerations that businesses must look at when deciding what type of technology that they should invest in:

• Businesses must understand their business challenges – A business needs to understand the end-solution they intend to achieve; whether it is to optimize productivity, reduce operational costs or improve the customer experience. It is only when they have identified their primary objectives and challenges can they identify the technology that they need to invest in.
• Investing in Smart Systems – Technology is everchanging and there will be newer innovations that are introduced. However, for larger businesses, overhauling systems in favor of new ones in a short cycle may not be sustainable. As such, they must consider investing in products with increased usability through predictive AI/Machine Learning.
• Engaging an expert to evaluate business solution needs – Employing an expert can help you in evaluating your business needs and the type of solutions that would work best. This helps reduce the concerns for the business owners and ultimately, saves them from investing in the wrong technology which could be detrimental in the long run.

Interestingly, Steven pointed out that beyond the cost, businesses might be reluctant to adopt newer technology due to several factors. The conversion of systems from the current ones to a new system is often a complex process. For many businesses, these systems would have been in place for many years or are a legacy system. Businesses would be even more hesitant especially if the system has worked out for the businesses to date. However, as the demands of the global marketplace change, businesses that do not adapt may fall behind.

Steven Loh, Senior Sales Director, Head of Relationship Segment, Lenovo Malaysia

Separately, as new systems are implemented, Steven highlighted that retraining of staff must be conducted to ensure that they can operate the new systems. The amount of money and time invested in retraining these staff may lead to reduced production output during the first few months that the new systems are implemented. If businesses look at the long-term benefit, they may be met with increased efficiency, agility, and productivity from the new systems.

“Recently, Lenovo worked with a local Malaysian corporation to adapt, innovate, and scale with agility to meet the rising demand for their product amidst the pandemic. By working with Lenovo, the customer was able to deploy a high-availability infrastructure allowing factory production to run uninterrupted, non-stop around the clock, without having their employees work overtime and allowing them to work-from-home in order,” added Steven.

At Tech World 2021, Lenovo also announced the expansion of their “Everything-as-a-Service” business model with Lenovo TruScale to provide a truly global solution that makes everything, from the pocket to the cloud, accessible via a single contract. Lenovo TruScale now offers businesses of all sizes the flexibility they need to stay competitive with a scalable, cloud-like consumption model and predictable payment options for hardware and service inclusions. This transition to a fully integrated as-a-service strategy brings to life the company’s vision of bringing its smart devices, smart infrastructure, and smart solutions businesses together in a new way for customers – addressing common business challenges and providing IT leaders with the performance and flexibility to pay-as-you-grow.

“With Lenovo TruScale, IT leaders’ infrastructure solutions are fully managed, giving customers the advantages of an on-premises cloud environment along with the peace of mind around data management in a hybrid environment,” explained Steven.

5G and smart manufacturing

The future of IT is strongly rooted in the adoption of 5G. In fact, according to PSB Research, 91% of IT managers believe 5G will drive new products and services that have yet to be invented. Moreover, a report from IHS Economics predicts that the 5G value chain is expected to contribute 3.5 Trillion USD of new economic output and 22 million jobs by 2035. Today’s technological challenges only further emphasize the value of this next-gen technology, positioning its integration as not only a timely solution but a representation of what is to come.

“Companies around the world continue to gear up for 5G. We are also investing in 5G for its faster connectivity, greater capacity, ultra-low latency, and improved reliability and flexibility, suitable for applications such as IoT infrastructure, rural/edge enablement, and AR/VR.  Though exceedingly valuable, the adoption of 5G is complex, costly, and time-intensive. Lenovo is working on making the process more affordable and efficient by providing a variety of devices and different price points,” highlighted Steven.

As 5G will enable smart systems to improve smart manufacturing, most use cases are being developed and tested among Malaysian companies as well. This included the use of autonomous robots such as cobots in packaging, automated machinery in factories as well as smart sensors to provide real time statistics.

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The auto sector has been slammed with one of the worst global chip shortages since 2020, forcing automakers to cut factory output by several million vehicles. But it has been more than 18 months, and while many carmakers are still pessimistic of the near future, South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor expects to see its manufacturing operations get back to normal in the coming weeks.

Though the automaker believes it won’t be able to fully catch up on production losses caused by the semiconductor shortage until 2022, its global CEO José Muñoz, reckon its best to be safe from any future unforeseen circumstances. 

“The (chip) industry is reacting very, very fast,” Munoz said, according to Reuters. He also reportedly said that the worst has passed for the industry chip shortage, while adding Hyundai have had the “toughest months” in August and September.

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The global shortages have also impacted Hyundai until it had to temporarily suspend some factories. “But also in our case, we want to be able to develop our own chips within the group, so we are a little bit less dependent on a potential situation like this,” Munoz said, adding that although it takes a lot of investment and time, it is something they are working on.

To top it off, the  company’s parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis would be a part of the in-house development plan. Besides making its own chips, Hyundai Motor also aims to deliver vehicles at the level of its original business plan in the fourth quarter this year, and offset some of its production losses next year.

Muñoz  also said parent company Hyundai Motor Group, which includes the Genesis luxury brand and also controls the Kia brand, has weathered the chip shortage better than many other manufacturers. In fact, it didn’t even cancel orders from chip suppliers, like other competitors, despite business shutdowns in the early days of the pandemic, he said.

This wasn’t the first time Hyundai spoke of self-sufficiency. The automaker has been stressing the need for a self-sufficient and vertically integrated structure since mid this year, from components to finished goods, to avoid further shortages. According to sources, Hyundai Mobis, is said to have been involved in selecting local fabless production lines and components designers as an initial step to produce its own automotive semiconductor chips. 

Other car manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler are still struggling to deal with the impact of the global chip shortage, with executives from each of the companies warning a lack of silicon is likely to remain a problem.

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For the longest time, manufacturing of satellites in China had been the domain of enterprises linked to the People’s Liberation Army. However, that is quickly changing as even China’s largest privately owned automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding’s (Geely) has just made its foray into the field long dominated by the country’s military division.

According to a post on the WeChat account of Geely Technology Group, the first pre-production satellite was rolled off the assembly line at Geely’s satellite manufacturing factory in Taizhou, Zhejiang province at the end of last month, marking the commencement of the scale production for Geely’s commercial satellites to support its future autonomous vehicles.

The aim of Geely, also the parent company of Sweden’s Volvo Cars, is to use a network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to help its future autonomous vehicle navigate with the highest level of safety with centimeter level precision. 

Satellite productions by China’s Geely 

In February 2021, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved Taizhou Xingkong to manufacture commercial satellites, the second one in the country to obtain such a permit.

Developed in-house by Geespace, a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, the newborn satellite was manufactured by Taizhou Xingkong Intelligent Connectivity Technology Co.,Ltd. (Taizhou Xingkong), a company also controlled by Geely Technology Group.

The Taizhou Xingkong’s plant also possesses China’s first private capital funded smart AIT (assembly, integration and testing) center for pulsating modular satellites. It is, interestingly, the country’s first factory integrating volume production capabilities of both aero devices and automobiles. It will feature an annual capacity of 500 satellites, said Geely.

Geely essentially found that entering the satellite business is a must if it wishes to expand its global presence, reports claim, as US private firms are making strides in the space business. The development of commercial aerospace business will in fact support Geely in many fields like future mobility service, intelligent manufacturing, unmanned aerial vehicle transportation, and city management.

Geely is even ambitious to use its low-orbit satellites to provide low-latency centimeter-level positioning service for such smart mobility applications as cloud-based vehicle management, autonomous driving, automatic parking, and low-altitude flights.

Geely’s CEO Xu Zhihao said the achievement is a reflection of “Geely speed” and “Geely determination. He reckons that a bright future lies ahead for commercial aerospace, with the rapid pace of change in the aerospace industry and the integration of new communication technologies in different sectors such as satellite internet, autonomous driving, and cloud computing.

It is rather apparent indeed that Geely isn’t the only one in its pursuit of satellite technology to support a fleet of cloud connected cars. In the West in fact, Tesla is also using LEO satellites for the Starlink network to provide internet access to rural areas. Additionally, even Japanese vehicle maker Honda Motor plans to make its way into the satellite launch industry.

The post China’s Geely begins production of satellites for its self-driving vehicles appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The Chinese government has been relatively tentative when it comes to autonomous vehicles and as it looks to be ahead in the global self-driving vehicle industry, the country laid out its first national standards for grading autonomous driving. Drafted by 11 major carmakers and suppliers, the standards will come into effect in March 2022.

The benchmark is basically for carmakers to develop futuristic autonomous technology involving vehicles. Basically, the six-tier standard, “Taxonomy of Driving Automation for Vehicles”, provides official definitions for self-driving cars from level zero (L0), which relies largely on human drivers, to L5 that achieves “full driving automation”.

Currently, local carmakers in China use the United States-based Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) definition. The classification by the SAE was rolled out in 2014 and updated  several times since. It also has a six-level rating based on the engagement of human drivers and automation.

SAE vs Chinese self-driving vehicle standard

To be frank, the SAE definition is a bit ambiguous as it defines L2 as “partial automated driving” and L4 level as “high-level automated driving”. On the contrary, the Chinese version of classification is more detailed and clear. 

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China’s L0, L1 and L2 levels require that the driver and the automated driving system work together on detecting and responding to objects and events while the SAE version only requires drivers to perform the tasks for these levels.

Meanwhile, L3 is named as Conditionally Automated Driving as it could continuously perform all dynamic driving tasks under its designed operating conditions. L4 on the other hand is called highly automated driving. At this level, the vehicle is also able to take measures to reduce the risk of accidents should the driving automation system fail to perform the necessary actions.

Then there is L5 for fully automated driving. This level means that there are no limitations by any operating design scope, and the vehicle can continuously perform all dynamic driving tasks under any conditions. Should the driving automation system fail to perform dynamic driving tasks, the L5 system takes measures to reduce the risk of accident and to minimize any damages

The latest standards in China were drafted  by 11 major carmakers and suppliers, including Ford, BMW and Volkswagen’s China units as well as some domestic giants like Geely and GAC Group. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will oversee its adoption. Interestingly, the standards are not mandatory. However, the taxonomy is a recommended standard that authorities hope self-driving car companies will voluntarily adopt.

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In a 2019 research by Morgan Stanley, analysts claim that the global demand for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) is set to reach US$1.5 trillion by around 2040. Although we are still far away from that figure, the world may witness its first flying taxis four years from now, in Osaka, Japan.

Earlier this month, Tokyo-based startup SkyDrive Inc. signed a partnership agreement with the Osaka Prefectural Government to have a fleet of flying cars up and running for use in the World Expo 2025 in the Osaka region. SkyDrive’s CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa is convinced that by 2050 anyone will be able to fly to any destination within the capital’s 23 wards in 10 minutes. 

To recall, the developer of flying cars which was founded only three years ago, demonstrated Japan’s first public test flight of a manned vehicle in August last year. Ever since then, they have been hoping to introduce such mobility as an option that has advantages over existing modes of transport.

SkyDrive’s SD-03 used for the test flight is powered by electric motors that drive rotors deployed in four locations, with each location housing two rotors, and the company is aiming to develop the world’s smallest eVTOL vehicle.

The partnership agreement between SkyDrive — which has about 100 employees including engineers from Toyota Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd — and Osaka Prefecture, as well as the city of Osaka, is mainly to work toward the practical utilization of its flying cars in the western Japan metropolis ahead of the World Exposition.

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Reports also claim that Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura has aspirations to see flying cars start having passengers in the Osaka Bay area in 2024, by shuttling them five kilometers between Universal Studios Japan and the city’s Yumeshima artificial island, which so happens to be the venue of the exposition.

According to Tomohiro, “Osaka is the ideal place to launch air mobility in Japan because of its record of innovation, the scheduled World Exposition, and its topography, with the metropolitan area built around and connected by rivers, the bay, and the sea. Flying cars will make it possible to use the skies for daily transportation.”

Currently,  SkyDrive is said to be testing a two-seater flying car that resembles an outsized drone, with a rotor at each corner. They are also offering a cargo delivery transporter known as SkyLift that could be used to deliver goods to difficult or inaccessible areas.

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