Joby Aviation’s electric air taxi takes flight in NYC, powered by $500M from Toyota

It’s not science fiction anymore: New York City could, in the near future, see air taxis buzzing around the skies.

California-based Joby Aviation unveiled and showed off its electric air taxi—a small, five-seat helicopter with numerous rotors—at an event in New York City’s Grand Central Station on Thursday night. The air taxi, which the company claims can reach speeds of 200 miles per hour, has a range of 100 miles and a payload of 1,000 pounds. The company says the taxi may serve as a way to get people out of denser parts of the city and to, say, the airport, in a matter of minutes.

Giving the public the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the air taxi, which actually made a flight around Manhattan in 2023, may be one of the initial steps to conditioning New Yorkers to the sight and sound of the vehicles. And, it seems like the company is getting closer to making its dream of ubiquitous air taxis a reality, as it’s inked partnerships with bigger transportation companies, such as Uber, Delta Air Lines, and Toyota, and is raising a lot more money.

JoeBen Bevirt, Joby’s founder and CEO, speaking to the crowd at the event, discussed the company’s partnership with Delta Air Lines, signed in 2022, and its “blossoming partnership with Toyota, which, back in 2019, made the first investment, and embedded a lot of engineers with us,” he said. “Yesterday we announced that Toyota had leaned in—Toyota was already our largest shareholder, having invested $394 million. They’ve now committed to investing an additional $500 million into Joby.”

Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, was also on hand and likewise laid out a vision of relatively “effortless” transportation for New Yorkers to nearby airports. For instance, for those trying to make a flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport—16 miles away, which can often take as long as an hour to reach by car. Instead of that lengthy journey, imagine summoning an air taxi on the Uber app in Manhattan, taking a seven-minute air taxi flight to the airport, and popping directly into a Delta terminal. That sort of scenario is the goal, Khosrowshahi said, and isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound.

“We thought that, probably in 2017 or 2018, there was the possibility of urban-air transportation,” he said. “The vision that [Bevirt] put forward, the passion that his team had, and clearly they’ve backed up that passion with incredibly hard work.” Khosrowshahi recalled that after meeting with Bevirt’s team several years back, he decided to partner with the firm. “We folded Uber Elevate into Joby. We became a partner and an investor, and our vision is to make [transportation] absolutely effortless for everyone.”

As for when, or if, air taxi travel becomes a reality? That’s still up in the air, as the company is in the process of getting certified through the Federal Aviation Administration, and building out areas where the air taxis could land and take off in the city. Eventually, through the partnership with Uber, passengers may be able to summon an air taxi for a relatively low price, compared to existing services like Blade.

But again, nothing is set in stone yet, even if it appears that we’re inching closer to seeing flying taxis frequenting the skies around Manhattan’s skyscrapers.