The future was always supposed to include flying cars. Joby, one of the companies trying to make this happen, has begun live testing in New York City. The program will run over ten days, but it’s not for average citizens yet.
The company’s trial is more of a tech demo, showing off how Joby can “connect the region, linking vertiports, international airports, and communities” in NYC in particular. It’s all come a long way since NASA was helping the company to test flight capability.
Good Joby, guys
Joby’s first flight in the test, and the one they’re bragging about, travelled from JFK Airport to various heliports in the city. These include “Downtown Skyport, and the West 30th Street and East 34th Street Heliports in Midtown.” These could eventually constitute commercial routes in New York, which would see Midtown and Lower Manhattan passengers make JFK in under ten minutes. Taking a flying car to catch your plane does sound terribly futuristic.
The company’s own summary of its plans is more specific: “In a city where a typical commuter lost, by one estimate, 102 hours to traffic congestion in 2025, Joby’s goal is to reclaim that time by transforming a 60-to-120-minute drive to JFK into a seven-minute flight.”
The electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) company is one of five participants in the US’ eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The program aims to “accelerate commercial rollout of this next generation of air transportation across the U.S.”
Will South Africa ever see Joby, Archer Aviation, or Xpeng’s flying vehicles launch here? The way things are currently, probably not. Mention a ‘flying taxi’ to your average South African, and they’ll have a very different vision of the future.
