Some details have finally made their way online regarding Google founder Larry Page's ultra-secret startup, Zee.Aero, and they might surprise you: He's working on a flying car.
Zee.Aero is entirely unrelated to Google, which Page is no longer running (he's still in charge of Google parent company Alphabet, though).
Patent filings have revealed that Zee.Aero's project is a vehicle that can take off and land vertically—something like a Harrier Jump Jet except it would also be capable of driving on public roads. In some ways, what Page is after isn't far off of the drone taxis set to be tested in Nevada soon by a Chinese firm. The difference is that Zee.Aero's vehicles won't be autonomous.
ALSO SEE: 1,000-hp Mazzanti Evantra Millecavalli debuts at 2016 Turin Auto Show
According to a report by Bloomberg, Zee.Aero has been fully-funded by Page. And that's just where things begin to get interesting. Zee.Aero occupies a bland industrial building in Mountain View, California, where Page initially took up residence upstairs. The company's early employees were instructed to refer to him as GUS, or "guy up stairs."
Page is a close compatriot of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and the two are said to have shared many ideas with one another regarding the Zee.Aero concept.
Today, the company has 150 employees and a manufacturing facility on the grounds of a NASA research center nearby. It has been testing its secretive craft at an airport in Hollister, California, where the flying cars are akin to a UFO in terms of their rarity.
They've been spotted just twice, but that may be set to change soon. Then again, there’s a long list of companies that have attempted to bring us the flying car. So far none have succeeded.