Air Taxis

Joby Aviation has been beavering away hammering out the designs and flight dynamics of its awesome-looking tilt-rotor eVTOL for more than 10 years. Now, Joby's got half a billion dollars in the bank thanks to a huge investment led by Toyota.

After offering a look at its vision for flying taxis at last year's CES, Bell has returned to Las Vegas with what it considers a new and improved version, featuring an all-electric mode for zero-emission travel over urban centers.

Hyundai has used the grand platform of CES 2020 to unveil its take on the future of urban mobility. At the heart of its plans is its S-A1, an electric flying taxi developed with Uber.

As legions of eVTOL companies struggle to get their air taxi operations off the ground, one California company is saying to heck with it, we've already got the technology to make cheap, fast air commuting possible.

A fascinating chat with one of the companies at the forefront of the electric VTOL commuting revolution. Lilium is proceeding with flight testing, and says it'll have meaningful air taxi services in operation by 2025.

With the ability to carry up to 250 kg of payload at speeds up to 80 km/h, the 12-rotor Seraph is Britain's leading electric VTOL air taxi candidate. Vertical Aerospace has released video of this chunky bird in flight.

Six months after revealing its five-seat electric VTOL aircraft, German startup Lilium has shown it flying at speeds over 100 km/h (62 mph), and moving between VTOL and winged flight, in a new video.

Japanese electronics giant NEC has been working with a company called Cartivator to design, build and test VTOL air taxi concepts. Now the two companies have demonstrated a multi-seat manned multicopter, a step toward a flying car future Japan believes will arrive around 2030.

​With plans already in the pipe to lift its flying taxis into the air over Dallas and Los Angeles, Uber has now added Melbourne, Australia, to the list. The announcement marks the first pilot city outside the US for the forthcoming but highly speculative Uber Air service.

Skai some big waves last month with the launch of its long-range hydrogen-powered eVTOL air taxi prototype. In an interview with New Atlas, Skai's CTO tells us these flying commuters will cost about the same per mile as an Uber ride, and that he expects to be able to land them just about anywhere.

A new electric VTOL air taxi company came out of stealth mode today, using a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain that neatly sidesteps the energy density issue that's holding back battery-powered aircraft. Alaka'i Technologies' Skai machine has a range of up to 4 hr/400 mi and a five-passenger capacity.

Vertical Aerospace operating out of Bristol, UK, aims to bring on demand, emissions-free intercity air taxi services to the UK skies within four years. The company has nailed the first step in its bold plan by building and flying a fully electric vertical take off and landing aircraft recently.