Google co-founder wants to build flying cars

Google co-founder Larry Page has been secretly funding two startups committed to building flying cars.

Silicon Valley turning its attention to the automotive realm has been at the forefront of industry news this past year, with the likes of Apple, Uber and Tesla all working on disrupting -- to use a favorite Valley term -- the traditional business of cars. Now, Bloomberg has uncovered that Page's startups have not just been working on cars, but flying cars.

The first is a company called Zee.Aero, launched in 2010 and conveniently located in Mountain View, California, right next to Google headquarters. It was so secretive that it ignored all media inquiries and concealed Page's involvement by referring to him as simply GUS, the Guy Up Stairs. Bloomberg's revelation this week was that Page was no only its founder, but has poured $100 million into the company of around 150 employees.

According to the report, last year Page began backing a second flying car startup called Kitty Hawk, which uses a competing design described as a large camera drone.

Though it does not appear either of these companies will have a vehicle ready for production any time soon, recent advancements make flying cars less like a pipe dream. One of them is autonomous navigation, which Mark Moore, a NASA advanced aircraft engineer quoted in the article, says makes "self-flying aircraft is so much easier than what the auto companies are trying to do with self-driving cars," thanks to a lack of variables such as road signs, lane markings, and pedestrians. "What appears in the next 5 to 10 years will be incredible."

Source: Google co-founder wants to build flying cars