Uber Will Collaborate with Joby Aviation to Launch an Air Taxi Service in 2023

Uber decided to join forces with an aerospace company called Joby Aviation with an intention to deploy the air taxi service by 2023.

According to the agreement, Uber will provide the services themselves, including skyport infrastructure, airspace support, and connections to ground transportation, while Joby Aviation will supply the electric air vehicles.

Joby Aviation is the first company in the Uber Elevate initiative (an initiative to launch Uber Air, an aerial ridesharing service) that committed to Uber’s challenging plans to launch air taxi services by 2023.

Joby Aviation is a venture-backed aerospace startup founded in 2009 and based in California. The company focuses on developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to enable faster and more environmentally-friendly short distance transportation between cities.

The selected areas where air taxis will operate at first are Los Angeles, Dallas, and Melbourne – the cities where the first skyports will be built.

There’s little to no know information as to how the aircraft will look like, however, it is known that the company has a four-seat eVTOL model in development.

JoeBen Bevirt, the CEO of Joby Aviation, said in a statement,

We’re excited to partner with Uber. By bringing our next-generation aircraft and urban flight operations to Uber’s on-demand ground mobility network, we aim to get people to their destinations five times faster than driving, reduce urban congestion, and accelerate the shift to sustainable modes of transit.