George Jetson had a flying car in the 60’s. Marty McFly had a flying car in Back to the Future. Every decade for the last 60 years, someone promised us urban transportation in the sky and handed us a slightly updated Honda Civic instead. Yes, Megan — I’m talking about your Civic.
We were lied to. Repeatedly. Someone get me the Ben & Jerry’s (#NotAnAdWishItWas).
But Joby Aviation has been quietly building the actual answer on a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 15+ years. Is their product cool? Yes. But there’s something more important going on here and it has everything to do with something you lost last Tuesday, sitting in traffic. TIME.
Okay but we already have helicopters
Fair point. And helicopters have existed since the 1940s. If the problem was just getting people in the air for urban transit, we’d be Gucci.
But that’s not the problem. And there are two big reasons we haven't.
Too expensive. A helicopter ride from Manhattan to JFK today runs $200+. That's not regular transportation. That's a line item on an expense report.
Too loud to scale. One helicopter over your neighborhood is annoying. A hundred is unlivable. Cities have spent decades actively fighting helicopter expansion because of noise — which is why you've never seen a real helicopter transit network anywhere on Earth. It's not a regulation problem. It's a noise problem. You can’t fill the sky with things that sound like lawnmowers and expect people to be fine with it.
These aren't inconveniences. They're walls. And Joby is here to knock them down.
What Joby actually built
The aircraft takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, tilts forward and cruises like a plane, carries four passengers plus a pilot at up to 200 mph, travels 150 miles on a single battery charge, and produces zero emissions. AND it is nearly silent.
Source - Technology Magazine
At cruise altitude, Joby's aircraft registers 45 decibels — the sound of a quiet library. During takeoff and landing… below 65 decibels. The same as a normal conversation. Not just quieter than a helicopter. Orders of magnitude quieter. That’s the unlock, and it's what makes a real network of hundreds of aircraft over a city physically possible for the first time.
Why it matters for you
Americans lost an average of 63 hours sitting in traffic in 2024 — nearly eight full working days. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you're losing 100+ hours a year. That's not a commute. That's a freaking hostage situation with a podcast.
Surely this is just for the ultra-wealthy. Right? What about the common man? Well, you’re in luck… Joby had everyone in mind. It's a rideshare for everyone. Initial pricing is targeting to be competitive with Uber Black — not cheap, but not private jet money. Zach — you're paying for this regardless. You know it. I know it. (Zach is one of the more convenience-oriented people I know. Uber Comfort. Always. A man of the people. But can appreciate convenience.)
And like every technology that starts expensive and gets cheap, the goal is scale. Something that begins as a premium option and becomes as normal as shouting down a cab.
The guy who built it
JoeBen Bevirt. An interesting guy to say the least. JoeBen built one of the world's first full-suspension mountain bikes in high school, sold a robotics company to Agilent Technologies, and then invented the GorillaPod. You know that flexible camera tripod wrapped around every fence post and tree branch in every travel photographer's kit? This guy is Left Field certified.
He used those proceeds to fund an aviation startup on his ranch in 2009. Then went dark for a decade. Not a ton of press. No big announcements. No LinkedIn cheesy posts. Just engineers, prototypes, and a very patient man who wanted to solve the flying car problem before he talked about it.
Then the breakthrough. In 2019, Toyota had seen enough and became a strategic investor in the Company.
Toyota has now invested nearly $900 million into Joby — and has sent engineers to work side by side with Joby's team in California. Delta is in as a strategic partner. Amongst other acquisitions, Joby recently acquired Blade Air Mobility's entire passenger business for a cool $125 million, inheriting real routes and real customers overnight. The US Air Force has two aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base. Total raised: over $2.7 billion.
The honest take
We all know aviation timelines and optimism go together like peanut butter and jelly. Joby has pushed its launch date before and the FAA does not rush for anyone, ever. Building a vertiport network across American cities is a genuine infrastructure challenge. Pricing that works for everyday commuters is a long game.
But Joby has been at this longer, raised more, and is further along in FAA certification than any competitor. By a lot. The 10-year stealth mode wasn't hiding. It was compounding.
If they pull this off
The city stops being defined by its roads. The 45-minute commute takes 7 minutes. The stress-filled sprint-walk at the airport is gone. Those commuting hours that have stolen weeks of your life you'll never get back. OUTAA HERE!
George Jetson had the right idea. He was just 60 years early and working with a cartoon budget.
JoeBen Bevirt has the engineering degree, the Toyota partnership, the FAA paperwork, the team, and the patience of a man who invented a camera tripod and quietly used it to fund the future.
Go to the field: jobyaviation.com 🌾
Want to work out here?
Joby is hiring in Santa Cruz, San Carlos, and Marina, California — and in Dayton, Ohio, where they're building the factory that will eventually produce 500 flying taxis a year. Engineers, pilots, finance, and people who have been waiting their whole lives to work on the actual flying car.
Open roles → jobyaviation.com/careers
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