Larry Page funded Kitty Hawk unveils self-flying taxi in New Zealand

The flying car startup, Kitty Hawk, which is lavishly funded by Google co-founder Larry Page, has unveiled an electric, self-flying air taxi. It has the capacity to travel at up to 180 km/h (110mph).

This ambitious project of Kitty Hawk is called Cora. Cora flies horizontally like an airplane but has the capability to take off and land vertically. 

"Cora is self-piloting, which means that to get where you need to go, you don't need a pilot's license," says Eric Allison, Kitty Hawk's vice president for engineering.

Cora can fly up to 110 miles per hour and has a range of 62 miles. It can do 100 km on a single charge. It will eventually be available to customers as a service similar to an airline or a ridesharing taxi said the parent company Kitty Hawk on the Cora website. Cora will be able to operate using self-flying software combined with human oversight, it added.

"We've got ambitious goals here in New Zealand, we want to get to net zero emissions by 2050 and that includes mobility," said Dr. Megan Woods, minister for research, science, and innovation, in a promotional video for the aircraft.

Kitty Hawk is planning to tap the future market by not just building a kind of aircraft but also by launching an air taxi service, starting in New Zealand.

According to the New York Times, the company has reached a deal with the New Zealand government to allow the air taxi service to operate, and the company hopes to launch the service in as few as three years.

The aircraft has been developed in New Zealand, where the government said it welcomed the project because of its environmental credentials.