Joby acquires autonomous flight developer Xwing

Joby Aviation is one of many electric vertical take-off and landinng (eVTOL) air tax manufacturers that predicts autonomy will be the driver of ubiquitity for advanced air mobility (AAM) services and the company is placing its money where its mouth is.

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Joby on Tuesday 4 June Joby announced it acquired the autonomy division of Xwing, the developer of autonomous gate-to-gate flight software Superpilot, as it looks ahead to a transition to self-flying air taxi services. The manufacturer plans to initially operate the aircraft with onboard pilots and has a partnership with Delta Air Lines to launch commercial service as early as next year, beginning in New York and Los Angeles.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said the acquisition was paid for with Joby shares and covers ‘all of Xwing’s existing automation and autonomy technology activities.’ “The aircraft we are certifying will have a fully qualified pilot on board,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, “but we recognise that a future generation of autonomous aircraft will play an important part in unlocking our vision of making clean and affordable aerial mobility as accessible as possible.”

Like competitors Wisk Aero, the eVTOL subsidiary of Boeing and Archer Aviation, which in August agreed to make Wisk the exclusive provider of autonomous systems for a future variant of its flagship air taxi, Joby evidently believes autonomy will be key to scaling up its operations.

The manufacturer began exploring pilotless flight in 2021 with the acquisition of radar developer Inras, whose technology it said it would use to develop an onboard sensing and navigation system.