Google co-founder Larry Page’s flying car startup Kittyhawk announced on Wednesday, local time, that the company is winding down. In a LinkedIn post, the company wrote, “We are still working on the details of our next steps.”
Kittyhawk was founded in 2010 when Page recruited Sebastian Thrun, who had worked on self-driving cars and other experimental projects at Google, to build an electric vertical takeoff and landing plane. The company released a demo video of a flying car in 2017, and Thrun said he envisioned a time when people could hail flying cars through apps like Lyft or Uber.
Kittyhawk showed a model of a flying car called Flyer in 2018 that could hold a person and fly up to 20 miles. Shrun had told CNBC in an interview earlier that year that the models could be in the sky within five years. The company announced a strategic partnership with aircraft manufacturer Boeing the following year.
By 2020, however, Kittyhawk reportedly announced plans to shut down its Flyer program and shift its focus to its electric aircraft called the Heaviside.
But a company spokesperson told CNBC that today’s announcement will not affect the company’s relationship with Boeing.
“Kitty Hawk’s decision to cease operations will not change Boeing’s commitment to Wisk. We are proud to be a founding member of Wisk Aero and are excited to see the work they are doing to drive innovation and sustainability through the future of electric air travel. We do not anticipate that the Kitty Hawk announcement will affect Wisk’s operations or other activities in any way.”
