Joby Aviation’s move to go public has been the source of speculation for some time, and their latest announcement represents a significant moment for the burgeoning urban air mobility (UAM) movement. Indeed, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials have said electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts — known informally as "flying cars" — are a lot closer to reality than many people realize.
On a conference call to mark the unveiling of the company’s public listing, Joby Aviation Founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt said its goal is to "save a billion people an hour every day" with its aircrafts, and that the Uber Elevate acquisition will be crucial to help establish an air taxi service in cities. Uber’s previous goal had been to test air taxi service starting last year in Melbourne, Australia; Dallas; and Los Angeles, but saw that timeline slip.
"The Elevate team invested nearly five years in the development of market simulation and demand forecasting tools which allow us to understand our network and characterize how our future customers prefer to move around," Bevirt said. "From these insights, we can identify optimal locations for nodes, or Skyports, allowing us to scale up our network and fulfill demand while being extremely efficient in how we roll out infrastructure."
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