Uber Joins Forces With Joby Aviation To Launch An Air Taxi Service By 2023

Uber is joining forces with California-based aerospace company Joby Aviation to launch urban air-taxi services in select locations by 2023. The Verge reports: Joby is the brainchild of inventor JoeBen Bevirt, who started the company in 2009. The company operated in relative obscurity until 2018, when Joby announced it had raised a surprising $100 million from a variety of investors, including the venture capital arms of Intel, Toyota, and JetBlue. The money helped finance development of the company's air taxi prototype, which has been conducting test flights at Joby's private airfield in Northern California.

Unlike the dozens of other companies that are currently building electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Joby has kept much of its project under wraps. The few renderings that are out there show a plane-drone hybrid with 12 rotors and room in the cabin for four passengers, though a spokesperson previously cautioned that what Joby is working on now is "entirely new." The company has yet to provide any recent photographs or images of its prototype aircraft. [...] Uber says that it has signed a multiyear commercial contract with Joby to "launch a fast, reliable, clean and affordable urban air taxi service in select markets." Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, nor would they comment on whether there was any money exchanged. The report notes that Joby "will supply and operate the electric air taxies, and Uber will provide air traffic control help, landing pad construction, connections to ground transportation, and, of course, its ride-share network reconfigured to allow customers to hail flying cars rather than regular, terrestrial ones."

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