Mobility

Japan’s first manned test flights of an airborne car have started, a Tokyo-based company said.

Toyota Motor is investing $394 million into the U.S. "flying taxi" startup Joby Aviation, the Japanese company announced on Thursday.

Founded in 2009, Joby is developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, for urban transportation services.

The fresh funding follows Toyota's investment in February 2018 through its affiliated venture capital subsidiary, Toyota AI Ventures. The carmaker plans to provide Joby with manufacturing and electrification technologies to achieve mass production.

Osaka Metro Co. on Tuesday started testing a next-generation automated ticket gate featuring a facial recognition system.

Hitachi has landed a contract worth over 350 million pounds ($460 million) to build and maintain train cars for a British high-speed rail system.

Trials of next-generation self-driving electric wheelchairs have been carried out at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, to help elderly and other people get to boarding gates more easily.

Commuters in Tokyo are honing their straphanging skills as East Japan Railway and JR East Sports roll out a novel smartphone app that lets passengers exercise while riding the train.

Japan's SoftBank will work with compatriots including shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on a fast maritime communications network that will open the door to remote-controlled ships.

Yamato Transport Co. unveiled on Tuesday what it says is a greener, compact, driver-friendly electric truck that may offer hope for coping with the acute labor shortage in Japan’s door-to-door parcel delivery industry.

Grab, developer of the Singaporean "super app" of the same name, will team up with a taxi operator in Japan, letting users of its app hail taxis at popular tourist sites, starting Monday.

Japanese rolling stock makers are tapping the "internet of things" to offer maintenance and management solutions to rail system operators suffering from chronic staffing shortages.