Posted on 10/05/2022 2:05:10 PM PDT by NohSpinZone
A Silicon Valley flying car startup that received backing from Google's Larry Page and set out to revolutionize the way people get around is closing locations and laying off employees.
Kittyhawk gave pink slips to 100 employees, according to a WARN notice filed with state labor officials on Sept. 22. The WARN notice posted with California's Employment Development Department also indicated that the company is permanently closing three offices, including two in Palo Alto at 821 San Antonio Rd. and 4062 Fabian Way and another in Mountain View at 2639 Terminal Blvd. The layoffs and closures were reported to the state on Sept. 22 and will go into effect on Nov. 22.
Kittyhawk didn't respond to a request for comment on the layoffs, but a message on its LinkedIn page posted on Sept. 21 said, "We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk. We're still working on the details of what's next."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
At least their batteries won’t explode in midair now...
We old timers were promised flying cars by now....
Somebody lied.
They were working on an electric aircraft that could take off and land vertically like a quad copter, fly horizontally like a conventional aircraft, and take passengers from point A to point B flying over the traffic.
Sounds like their business model was screwed up from the get-go. What did they need 3 different office locations for? That’s a lot of overhead
They should have kept it small and started in an airport hangar
Damn I’ve always wanted a flying car like George Jetson, that would be so cool.
Should have went with the Jetson design...
Here’s George Jetson!!
Not likely ever.
Most people are not able to think in terms of 3D, in terms of their spatiality at a proficient level to operate a flying car. They only way that a flying car could be made feasible, if brought down to affordability, is if it was completely automated.
Then do a start-up.
Getting closer, but the decibels.
This “flying skateboard” is off-the-charts cool, but it’s probably loud as sh!t. If you haven’t seen it watch it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQzLrvz4DKQ
*aero
They couldn’t hire George Jetson?
Living in the Future!
John Prine sang about it decades ago. From 1980.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ftvh9eWkAc
We are living in the future
I’ll tell you how I know
I read it in the paper
Fifteen years ago
We’re all driving rocket ships
And talking with our minds
And wearing turquoise jewelry
And standing in soup lines
We are standing in soup lines
“They were working on an electric aircraft...”
So it was a plan to bilk investors all along then.
While John was very much a Democrat, it’s interesting to note he wrote that (especially the soup lines part) after about 4 years of Jimmy Carter.
Pretty cool!
https://www.zapata.com/en/flyboard-air/
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