The not-quite-Google flying car is apparently as easy to fly as a $1000 drone

Except you’d be in it… so it would be a lot more costly if you drove it into a tree.

Regardless, the KittyHawk Flyer looks to be the most reasonable shot at a ‘flying car’ yet, thanks to its apparent market scalability and reported ease-of-use.

Check out this video by YouTube star Casey Neistat who was invited out to be one of the earliest public testers of the Flyer.

He describes the experience as “like flying a Mavic drone, but I’m sitting in it.” Sounds good to us.

Part of the ease of use is thanks to it’s drone-like self-levelling technology that gives you one less axis to worry about. The whole thing is controlled with just two joysticks “like a PlayStation”.

Niestat was put through ‘training’ in a simulator that took just two hours, though KittyHawk claims future users will be able to learn how to use the ‘car’ in just minutes. (still, two hours is pretty good for something that has almost helicopter-like abilities)

For those just hearing about KittyHawk now, the company is kind-of-a-Google-offshoot-but-not-really. It’s run by the former head of Google’s X-division previously responsible for the tech-giant’s experimental projects like that weird koala-looking self-driving car and the short-lived Google Glass. It’s also largely funded by Google co-founder Larry Page (worth a cool US$51 billion, so… y’know money to spend…).

The company has big plans to expand, in case inviting top-tier YouTubers to have a go wasn’t evidence enough, recently striking a deal with the NZ government to begin scale testing of their larger Cora ‘taxi’ product in sparsely-populated areas.

KittyHawk have not announced how much a Flyer would cost, but they still invite you to buy one by filling out this weird form.

As the ‘Founder’s group’ is by invitation only, we assume the form is to determine your relative level of importance.

What we do know is that it can fly at heights of just over three meters for now and currently has a max-speed limited to roughly 32km/h. At that speed and height, the battery is expected to last somewhere between 12 to 20 minutes. It’s also legal to fly in the ‘ultralight’ aircraft category in the US (so, like, not legal at all in Australia yet) and will apparently sound like a lawnmower.

Flying cars. Yeah, or nah? Tell us in the comments.