Toyota-backed SkyDrive has finally conducted a public, crewed test flight (via Observer) for its flying car after years of work. The startup flew its SD-03 vehicle around the Toyota Test Field in the city of Toyota with a pilot at the helm. While it wasn’t autonomous, as you might have guessed, it showed that the aircraft could work as promised in the field.

The SD-03 is billed as the smallest electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicle in the world, and it’s meant to usher in a “new means of transportation” for urban life. It has a total of eight rotors that help it fly safely even if there’s a motor failure.

Beyond the image you see above of a futuristic San Francisco skyline, Hyundai didn’t provide a lot of information about its flying vehicle. The one detail we have is that all three concepts will work in tandem with one another to move people through congested cities.

We’ll have to see if the concept pans out, but among the more than 70 companies working on personal flying vehicles, Hyundai is one of the more invested ones. In September, the company formally introduced its Urban Air Mobility division and announced the hire of a former NASA engineer to head up the new group

Obviously, there’s a lot standing in the way of most people owning their own flying car. For example, a recent study completed by the University of Michigan and Ford determined that sustainability concerns mean most people probably won’t use one to get to work, but we still may be a lot closer to air taxis than you think.

It’s also tiny, as you can make out in a picture with a person crouching next to the aircraft with seating for one. TechCrunch got up close and personal with Heaviside, noting that at the moment the cockpit seats its passenger on bare carbon fiber.

Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun told TechCrunch “The calculus here is that this has to be socially acceptable for people,” while demonstrating Heaviside’s capability to fly overhead without being any louder than an office air conditioner. It’s also intended to support both manual and autonomous flight, although regulatory approval could be quite a way off.

According to Hyundai, the UAM sector is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion within the next 20 years. But Hyundai is far from the first to announce UAM plans. Uber is working on a flying taxi with Bell. Volocopter has an 18-rotor autonomous air taxi. Lilium’s flying taxi may carry as many as five passengers, and Boeing and Kitty Hawk have teamed up on their own venture.

Still, Shin’s experience working on the supersonic X-plane, electric aircraft, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) traffic management and UAM could give Hyundai an edge over its competition.

The battery-powered drone didn’t actually have a passenger inside as it rose to a height of about 10 feet for a few moments before returning to the ground. It was the first demo of such a vehicle by a major Japanese corporation, according to Bloomberg. Its partner Cartivator aims to start mass production in 2026.

“Japan is a densely populated country and that means flying cars could greatly alleviate the burden on road traffic,” Kouji Okada, who is among the project leads at NEC, told Bloomberg. “We are positioning ourselves as an enabler for air mobility, providing location data and building communications infrastructure for flying cars.”

Under Japan’s infrastructure plan, deliveries made by such drones are scheduled to start by 2023 or so. The government hopes to allow people to travel in the machines in the following decade. Venture capitalists in Japan meanwhile are investing in autonomous aircraft companies through their Drone Fund.

There’s a long way to go to reach those goals though, with battery life, regulatory and safety hurdles to overcome. NEC’s machine weighs about 150 kilograms, and is around 3.9 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 1.3 meters tall. Add some bodies and that’s a considerable mass to keep in the air safely for any length of time.

NEC isn’t the only ones building autonomous flying vehicles, of course. The United Arab Emirates, New Zealand and Singapore are hoping to make waves in the industry, while private companies like Uber, Volvo’s parent company and Google co-founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk are working on such machines too.

However, NEC and Cartivator might hold an advantage over rival businesses, thanks to the Japan government’s support. Cartivator already has a permit for outdoor flights.

The researchers came to their conclusions through a physics-based model that reflects the “general trends” of the industry. It considers factors like weight, battery energy and the lift-to-drag ratio.

This doesn’t mean you’ll never leave the ground. The economy tips in your favor beyond the 22-mile mark, since flying cars gain efficiency the longer they can cruise at speed (in the study, 150MPH). The value is particularly strong for fully-loaded vehicles making long trips. A 62-mile trip with four occupants would use 52 percent lower emissions than combustion engine ground cars, and six percent lower than ground-based electric models. Significant obstacles like heavy traffic or rivers could also make flying cars more eco-friendly.

Thankfully, the industry is already leaning in that direction. Companies like Airbus and Bell are working on flying taxis that would frequently take multiple passengers, fly in packed urban areas, or both. The main obstacles now are more likely to be social factors such as affordability, noise and public acceptance (including regulations). Flying cars could still become a practical reality — they just won’t be ubiquitous like you see in the movies.