Drones

Joby Aviation indicators main deal to safe parking house for city air taxis

Source: Joby Aviation

Visions of autonomous passenger drones flying over futuristic cityscapes still walk a fine line between reality and science fiction. However, with companies like EHang and Sikorsky at the helm, that future may be closer than we think; but the first, airy baby steps towards a real air taxi service will likely take the form of manned flights.

Enter Joby Aviation. The Californian company, which specializes in all-electric aircraft, this week announced a partnership with REEF Technology and Neighborhood Property Group to develop take-off and landing sites for its evolving aviation service

As the largest American car park operator, REFF is well positioned to equip future air taxis – manned or unmanned – with urban landing areas. NPG would fill in the gaps by purchasing the required mobility centers.

Welcome to Skyport

The partnership will give Joby exclusive access to a number of Skyport rooftop locations, initially focusing on Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco. Company representatives envision a future where parking garages would offer skyports near popular urban destinations such as convention centers and downtown event venues that provide unobstructed access and exit routes that minimize noise.

“This is a landmark deal in Joby’s journey to building a transformative ridesharing service in our skies,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation. “NPG and REEF have an unbeatable network of locations across the US and we are excited to work with them to identify locations that will become the backbone of our future service.

“Parking garages are ideal locations for us, as they enable us to bring our customers as close as possible to their destination while minimizing local impacts and reducing the need to build new infrastructures.”

Philippe Saint-Just, Co-Founder of REEF, said, “With our focus on transforming urban spaces into community hubs that enable the future of mobility, air travel is a compelling opportunity for us to decarbonise and transform travel Structures such as parking garage structures.

“We are very excited to be working with Joby to bring this transformative electric mobility to life and realize its potential for cities and their neighborhoods.”

Carpooling in the sky

The passenger service planned by Joby would be app-based and offer drivers an emission-free, manned flight for distances between 5 and 150 miles, avoiding typical urban traffic jams. The latest agreement consolidates Joby’s presence as a major player in the growing air taxi services space. Last year, Joby acquired Uber Elevate, Uber’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) initiative, while raising more than $ 800 million in grants.

Urban air mobility

Urban Air Mobility is well on the way to becoming one of the most important buzzwords in transportation in the 2020s. In Colombia, Varon Vehicles is building such a UAM network after announcing a partnership with Jaunt Air Mobility.

Last month, leading drone passenger operator EHang announced the launch of a new electric, autonomous aircraft designed for inner-city transportation. The publicly traded Chinese company is also developing air tourism in China and extensive pilot programs in Korea and Europe.

Jason is a longtime DroneLife employee with a passionate interest in anything technology related. He focuses on anti-drone technologies and the public safety sector; Police, fire brigade, search and rescue services.

Jason began his career as a journalist in 1996 and has since written and edited thousands of exciting news articles, blog posts, press releases, and online content.

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