Behind the somewhat underwhelming, drama-free demonstration lays a bigger ambition: Japan’s government wants the country becoming a leader in flying cars after losing out on advancements in technology such as electric cars and ride-hailing services. The country’s technological roadmap calls for shipping goods by flying cars by around 2023 and letting people ride in flying cars in cities by the 2030s. “Japan is a densely populated country and that means flying cars could greatly alleviate the burden on road traffic,” said Kouji Okada, a leader of the project at NEC. “We are positioning ourselves as an enabler for air mobility, providing location data and building communications infrastructure for flying cars.”

 

For the past few years, Japan has seen the emergence of a small, passionate flying-car community that believes Japan has the engineering expertise and right environment to surrogate a major international flying car industry. Venture capitalists in the country set up a specialized fund, known as the Drone Fund, specializing in investing in autonomous aircraft in general and flying-car businesses in particular.

 

Despite the fact that Monday’s demo is among the first by a major Japanese corporation, NEC is not planning to mass-produce the flying car, according to Okada. Alternatively project partner Cartivator will start mass producing the transportation machine in 2026, according to the startup’s co-founder, Tomohiro Fukuzawa. NEC engineers and Cartivator, which it sponsors, spent about a year developing the model. It’s about 3.9 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 1.3 meters tall, and weighs about 150 kilograms. It’s being tried in a large 10-meter-by-20-meter cage that’s 2 meters tall, to make sure it doesn’t fly out of control and injure someone, or cause damage.

 

Japan isn’t the only country desire to usher in a flying-car utopia; Dubai, Singapore, and New Zealand have expressed identical intentions. Google co-founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk Corp. is also working on a flying car, as is Uber Technologies Inc. Ultimately, NEC’s flying car will be set free: Cartivator has been granted a permit for outdoor flights by Japanese government.

 

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Huawei's competitiveness grew 9.6 percentage points to 37% in IDC data out Tuesday. U.S. restrictions enforced in May ultimately bar the company from acquiring American components, yet deliveries appear to have been unlikey affected by these measures.

 

The U.S. pressure has fueled purchases of Huawei devices here as Chinese companies encourage employees to buy them, for example. Huawei bucked the national trend of declining smartphone sales. Overall shipments in China reduced 6.1% on the year to 97.9 million last quarter. Full-year shipments sank for a second straight year in 2018 in a concentrated market. Customers are also growing thriftier amid soft corporate earnings.

 

Internationally, second-quarter smartphone deliveries shrank 2.3% to 333.2 million units, according to IDC. Even as smartphone markets of developed economies become saturated, Huawei's shipments flashy 8.3% to 58.7 million, thanks largely to sales in China.

 

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Boring Co. was launched by Musk in 2016 soon after he complained about the traffic congestion in Los Angeles, where the charismatic CEO resides. Musk's solution: build underground tunnels where passengers will be moved in autonomous vehicles at high speeds.

 

The startup opened its first test tunnel under the California headquarters of SpaceX, the space transportation company Musk developed. And it newly landed its first commercial contract to build and operate an underground loop system that can bring people around the Las Vegas Convention Center.

 

The $48.7 million Las Vegas contract consists of building two tunnels, one for vehicles and one for pedestrians sitting in fully automated Tesla cars modified for tunnel transport. Boring Co. has also suggested building a transit system in Chicago and a tunnel connecting New York City and Washington. Both plans are yet to be authorized by regulators. Boring Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

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The shift appears to parallel one by American rival Uber Technologies, which determined on the spin-off of its automated driving segment in April in advance of its own listing. Separating the risky, costly business could make the ride-hailing app more attractive to investors should it go public. 'The new company looks forward to further strategic collaborations with automakers and industry partners to promote the application of self-driving technologies in people's everyday lives,' Zhang said in Didi's announcement.

 

Didi's autonomous driving team, set up in 2016, now has 200-plus engineers working in China and the U.S. Its positions include veterans of Google's autonomous driving cousin Waymo, together with of GM Cruise and Apple and Microsoft, according to Chinese media. Prominent Didi investor SoftBank Group and Toyota Motor, which has announced an investment in the company, have also taken stakes in Uber's self-driving unit and could do so with Didi's new company.

 

Building autonomous driving tech is high priced and does not yield instant returns. Transforming the business to a stand-alone company and seeking investments from partners would help Didi solidify its earnings model and defray risk. Didi, founded in 2012, rose to the top of China's ride-hailing market through mergers with domestic rivals and the purchase of Uber's Chinese business. It has over 30 million subscribed drivers and about 550 million users. It is also using its vast troves of driving data to work with the central government on measures to ease blockage.

 

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On opening day, more than 2500 shoppers and 250 invited guests were at the store to participate in activities including a fashion and dance showcase. “For the past 10 years, Skechers has been evolving and improving ourselves in terms of retail shopping,” said Vincent Leung, president of Skechers Southeast Asia.

 

“Our clear direction is to create a wonderful customer shopping experience, with Brand Experience Stores in China, Hong Kong, and now our very first in Southeast Asia right here at Jewel Changi Airport.”

 

A staircase between Levels 1 and 2 features a colourful wall mural designed by Diplomat, a small group of young budding Singapore artists, adding energetic hip-hop and street-cred elements to the space. There is also a photo zone on Level 2, where visitors can take selfies with a fun photo-wall.

 

Another highlight of the Skechers in Singapore store exclusive to Jewel is a customisation zone, where one can personalise selected Skechers shoes or apparel with adornments or heat press. Guests of the opening were able to make their own customised pouch, choosing motifs to create an extraordinary souvenir of the event.

 

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Summer Wang, an equity analyst at Jefferies, said auto sales increased caused by deep discounts on older models ahead of stricter State VI emission standards which took effect on July 1, and the 6.18 Shopping Festival  which caused cosmetics, jewellery and appliance sales. Small-ticket items like food and daily goods also outperformed.

 

Urban Mainland China retail sales grew 9.8 per cent, ahead of the 8.3 per cent year-to-date figure, reaching RMB2.896 trillion (US$421 billion) in June, while rural retail sales grew by 10.1 per cent, ahead of 9.1 per cent for the half year. Cosmetics sales grew by 22.5 per cent, cars by 17.2 per cent and daily goods by 12.3 per cent. “We believe the beauty category is continuing to benefit from functional premiumisation, as consumers – both women and metrosexual men – are willing to pay a premium for a tangible improvement in appearance,” said Wang.

 

“Most discretionary categories saw improvement as well, including gold and jewellery (up 7.8 per cent), home appliances (up 7.7 per cent) and apparel and footwear (up 5.2 per cent).” By channel, online retail goods sales kept momentum with a robust 21.6 per cent year-on-year growth during the first half of the year, accounting for 19.6 per cent of Mainland China retail sales.

 

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