Ready for liftoff? Two flying taxi startups got Pentagon funding

Exclusive: Self-flying vehicle firms got $2m last year, as US military envisions taxis as more Blade Runner than Back to the Future

Two start-ups leading the race to build the first self-flying taxis are using money from the US military.

Last year, Kitty Hawk and Joby Aviation received a total of nearly $2m from the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), a Pentagon organization founded to help America's military make faster use of emerging technologies. Neither company, nor the DIUx, disclosed the funding at the time.