Skip to main content

Electric ‘flying taxi’ with ‘numerous propellers’ given boost by Toyota

At a private airfield somewhere between Monterey and Santa Barbara in California, you’ll find Joby Aviation’s electric “air taxi,” as JoeBen Bevirt likes to call it.

Bevirt founded Joby nine years ago to develop a short-hop aircraft system and is also the company’s CEO. With a slew of rivals currently clamoring to build their own flying car for personal transportation, competition is tough. But Joby is clearly doing something right as it has just received $100 million in venture funding from several major outfits that include Toyota A.I. Ventures, Intel Capital, and JetBlue Technology Ventures.

Recommended Videos

Bevirt is pretty secretive about the aircraft’s design (the Joby image above is from 2014), telling a recent visiting Bloomberg reporter not to spill the beans on the “physical specifics” of its working prototype. What we do know is that it’s an “exotic-looking white aircraft with numerous propellers,” suggesting a machine that’s part plane and part drone.

As you’d expect with such a vehicle, it’s capable of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), with a flight speed twice that of a helicopter. And yes, this is much more than just a pretty prototype that likes to stay close to terra firma — Bloomberg witnessed a demonstration that took the aircraft on a 15-minute flight well beyond the airfield.

The final design is likely to be a five-seat aircraft capable of 150 miles of flight time on a single charge. It also aims to be 100 times quieter during takeoff and landing than conventional aircraft.

Joby Aviation is convinced the skies will one day be busy with small, short-hop aircraft, carrying people across cities in a matter of minutes — and at an affordable price.

“People waste billions of hours sitting on roads worldwide each year,” Bevirt said in a release on Thursday. “We envision a future where commuting by eVTOL is a safer, faster, and cost-competitive alternative to ground transportation.”

He added that backing from “leaders in auto manufacturing, data intelligence, and transportation sectors” means his team is “now ready to build a commercial version of the aircraft.”

With its fresh funds, Joby is now working to expand its team to bring in more experts in areas such as structural engineering, electrical engineering, flight controls, and software.

Mindful of the competition, Bevirt prefers to keep his aircraft under wraps for now, but we’ll be sure to update with images once he finally decides to show off his flying taxi to the world.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Flying taxi startup Lilium gets cash boost from SpaceX backer
Lilium Jet

Compact, quiet, and emissions-free VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft are gaining increasing attention in the aviation world, with a slew of companies battling it out to become the first to launch a viable air taxi service for urban transportation.

One outfit that’s causing a stir in the sector is Lilium. The Munich, Germany-based company has just secured another $35 million in funding to add to the $240 million it picked up in March 2020 to help it further develop its five-seat, fully electric VTOL aircraft, called Lilium Jet.

Read more
Toyota just invested $394M in a secretive startup that makes flying taxis
toyota eyes the skies with 394m boost for flying taxi maker joby aircraft

Numerous electric-powered flying taxis whizzing about over busy cities may sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but a number of significant players are working hard to make it a reality.

Take Toyota. The Japanese car giant has just pumped a hefty $394 million into Joby Aviation, a California-based company developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for fast, quiet, and affordable air transportation services.

Read more
Honda doubles down on ‘holy grail’ of EV batteries
honda solid state battery production first electric suv 3

While some automakers are scaling back their production of electric vehicles, Honda is basking in the glow of a successful launch of its Prologue EV in the U.S., and was recently dubbed “North America’s most committed automaker.”

And now, Japan’s third-largest automaker is showing a similar commitment to making EVs more efficient and affordable, zeroing in on the production of its own in-house solid-state batteries, also known as the ‘holy grail’ of EV batteries.

Read more