'The closest thing to working at Wayne Enterprises': Inside the crazy rise and spectacular crash of Kittyhawk, the flying-car company founded by Google billionaire Larry Page
Killing off projects had become something of a tradition at Kittyhawk, the secretive flying-car startup launched by the Google cofounder Larry Page. But for many employees, this one stung the most.
In the same meeting, Thrun delivered even more surprising news: After several years of largely hands-off financial support, Page would become more involved with the company. Some employees, most of whom had never seen or interacted with Page, saw it as a clear sign that Kittyhawk was in jeopardy. What followed was a series of bizarre experiments, overseen personally by Page. Ostensibly intended to save the company, they felt more like the fantasies of a little boy playing with toy models.
But no traffic-fighting effort attracted more of Page's focus, or money, than the quest to build a flying car. To enthusiasts,, or electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, represent a cure-all for automobile traffic, providing transportation from point A to point B without the need for runways. But they're also technologically tricky to build, pose numerous safety issues, and are extraordinarily expensive. Page launched his first flying-car company, Zee Aero, in 2010.
"When Bloomberg did their original exposé, that's when urban air mobility became a thing," a former Kittyhawk employee recalled."Within the next two years you see hundreds of teams pursuing it. Everyone thought: If Larry Page is in this space, there must be something here."Page picked Thrun, a German technologist who built his reputation in robotics and artificial intelligence, to run Kittyhawk.
At first, Page was spotted frequently in Kittyhawk's offices, just west of Google's campus in Palo Alto; he'd drop in to tinker on a workbench for a few hours. But as the years went on, he became less and less present. When Kittyhawk killed a project or made a dramatic pivot in strategy, Thrun usually announced the news — but employees knew it was actually Page's edict.
Despite Page's largesse, former employees say, Kittyhawk's business strategy was a constant point of tension."Sebastian wanted to make money," one recalled."Larry didn't care. He had no economic incentive." Page seemed so disinterested in the company's turning a profit that some staffers believed what he really wanted was access to a"Willy Wonka fun house of projects," another former employee said.
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