MARINA – Laying the foundation for taking to the sky with its air taxi service, Joby Aviation announced Thursday that it has received Federal Aviation Administration authorization to use a suite of software tools designed to enable high-tempo, on-demand air taxi operations.
“As the president of operations, my mission is to ensure we have everything in place to run a successful air taxi operation as soon as next year,” said Joby President of Operations, Bonny Simi at a virtual briefing on Thursday.
Joby plans to use ElevateOS, an operating system that includes pilot tools, operations and schedule management software, a mobile-first rider app and an intelligent matching engine, to support its own air taxi operations, as well as making it available to selected partners who purchase the aircraft, as part of a wider services package.
The matching engine is similar to those used by ride-hailing apps today and pairs passengers with available aircraft and landing infrastructure to deliver journeys that are as efficient as possible.
Joby has designed and produced an electric air taxi that will carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds up to 200 mph offering high-speed mobility with a fraction of the noise produced by helicopters and zero operating emissions.
Simi said that she and her team work closely with Joby Chief Product Officer Eric Allison and his team in developing the service and the software that will support it.
“We’re working directly together to design operations and software to make sure they fit seamlessly together and deliver the service our customers expect,” said Simi.
Allison said he joined Joby from Uber where he built out the Elevate team, championed Uber’s $125 million investment in Joby and laid out a vision for aerial mobility that continues to be embraced by the entire sector.
“The Elevate team built on the decade of experience Uber had in enabling on-demand mobility to develop an air taxi product,” said Allison. “We built a wide range of software tools to support high-tempo helicopter operations and we actually ran these in New York City through the Uber app giving us incredibly valuable and unique insight into how to run effective aerial ride-sharing operations.”
Joby has been actively developing and testing these software tools, in-house, since acquiring Uber Elevate, the air taxi division of Uber in 2021. In 2019, Uber Elevate launched and ran UberCopter, the world’s first on-demand, multi-modal air taxi service in New York City, using traditional helicopters that were bookable via the Uber app.
More than two years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Joby a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, which allows Joby to operate a commercial air taxi service. The company has been able to use its ElevateOS software to test core aspects of its planned operations. Joby has been offering its team members a true, on-demand passenger service, enabling them to book flights with free choice of timing, origin and destination, using the Joby rider app, matching passengers with similar routes to each other, using automation tools, taking payments from Joby team members and external customers for whole-aircraft chartered flights, and integrating the use of the Joby pilot app, rider app and back-end operational software.
The virtual briefing detailed the rigors that go into preparing for the safe commercial operation of an air taxi.
“We’ve designed, built, and flown a remarkable aircraft and we regularly talk about the incredible progress we’re making on certifying our aircraft and scaling manufacturing,” said Simi. “But without the accompanying operating certificates, software, training, safety and maintenance programs, it’s not possible to operate an air taxi commercially.”
Joby has been doing business and developing a manufacturing facility in Marina for about the past seven years where it launched production of its aircraft at its Pilot Production Plant with the first aircraft rolling off the line in June 2023. The Marina facility is one of three in California with others at Santa Cruz — where the company is headquartered — and San Carlos. Joby Aviation also has a facility in Munich and chose Dayton, Ohio, last year, as the site for its new manufacturing plant.
Joby covered a range of preparations it is making to support the launch of commercial air taxi operations with an eye on 2025, including pilot training and the simulation of its planned air taxi service using a conventional aircraft that carries the same number of passengers as Joby’s aircraft.
In training electric air taxi pilots, Joby has developed an aircraft-specific training course that prepares qualified commercial pilots to fly the Joby aircraft in about six weeks, according to the company. The course includes the use of immersive flight simulation training devices being developed in partnership with CAE, a global leader in aviation training. Additionally, Joby has already begun offering private pilot training and ground school as part of its future pilot training academy.
In order to build a maintenance workforce, Joby received its Part 145 Maintenance Certificate earlier this year and is developing a comprehensive maintenance, repair and overhaul strategy to ensure maximum aircraft utilization in markets around the globe. Joby received a $1 million grant from the FAA to support the development of maintenance training programs.
In its pursuit of implementing rigorous safety systems, Joby was the first electric air taxi company to have a Safety Management System accepted into the FAA’s Voluntary Program for Air Operations, supporting the Company’s Part 135 operations. It was also the first air taxi company to be awarded the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations Stage 1 Certification, administered by the International Business Aviation Council, following a safety audit in 2023.
“Our go-to-market strategy has three core pillars,” said Simi. “First, operating in the U.S. domestic market alongside our partners Delta and Uber, second, working with the Department of Defense and other partners where we may sell the aircraft directly to support their operations, and third, working in overseas markets like Dubai where we recently announced a six-year exclusive deal to operate air taxis.”
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