Joby first introduced its VTOL capable aircraft in 2015 and ever since it has been in continous development with tech companies that have backed it.
While the multirotor aircraft is considerably expensive compared to a traditional aircraft, it severly cuts costs for traveling which makes up for the tough starting cost. The design has been reworked for two years in continuous R&D to perfect it and is now undergoing flight tests. The air taxi is 100 times quieter than traditional aircraft. It uses a sophisticated tilt system that changes the direction of the rotors, aligning them vertically for takeoff and landing and then tilting them forward to give thrust to the aircraft. The 5-seater aircraft aims to improve the traffic in crowded cities and it can fly 240km on a single charge.
Big names are now behind the funding of the company including Intel and Toyota. $100 million in Series B funding has been secured and Joby believes that such an aircraft can benefit by data examination.