Inside Valley – What Joby's flying taxis have over the European competition
Many start-ups promise flying taxis for the mass market. California's Joby is considered furthest ahead – I attended a test flight.
In this episode of Inside Valley I attended a test flight at Marina Airport, south of Santa Cruz. The electric flying taxi from US pioneer Joby lifts off with a hum, circles, lands. Founder JoeBen Bevirt believes he leads the rest of the world – but the industry is fighting scepticism.
What is at stake
Flying taxis are supposed to revolutionise aviation: electric, taking off vertically, quiet. Multiple companies worldwide are working on it. Germany’s most prominent entrants are Lilium (Munich) and Volocopter (Karlsruhe); China has Ehang; California has Joby. Bevirt claims his company leads in capital raised and in flight hours logged. “We are paving the way to the future,” he tells me.
Why the industry hit turbulence in 2022–23
Scepticism about flying taxis has never been stronger. Joby’s share price lost more than half its value in 2022; short sellers are actively betting against the sector; US aviation regulators are tightening the screws. In September 2022, Kittyhawk – the flying-taxi start-up backed by Google co-founder Larry Page – unexpectedly announced it was shutting down, having promoted its ambitions just weeks earlier with the line: “If anyone can make this work, it’s us.” For the whole industry it was a shock.
How Joby plans to hold its ground
Bevirt does not see a key rival’s failure as a fundamental setback. “We have faced a lot of scepticism for years,” he says. “That doesn’t change the opportunity.” In fact, traditional aviation partners are increasingly stepping in: Delta Air Lines announced in October 2022 that it would invest 60 million dollars in Joby. The goal is for flying taxis to collect passengers at home and take them directly to the airport – no traffic jams, no public transport. Joby is simultaneously expanding its offices in Munich and Stuttgart and plans to deepen its German presence.
Why public transport is the real question
The Joby vision stands in for a larger problem. In the greater San Francisco Bay Area, public transport has been struggling for years – long journey times, cancellations, delays. Apple, Alphabet and Meta have long operated their own shuttle buses for staff. Flying taxis risk becoming a niche for the wealthy who solve their own mobility problems individually rather than fixing public infrastructure. Which path Germany chooses is an open question. What is clear: whoever bets on Joby today is betting on an aviation sector that is meant to look very different by 2025.
I wrote the full reportage for Handelsblatt.