Soar over LA traffic in an air taxi

A vision from The Jetsons seems to be one step closer to reality.

OK, so it’s not exactly a flying car, but it’s pretty close.

A California startup named Joby Aviation is developing an all-electric air taxi that would be used in the skies above cities worldwide.

Recently, they had their aircraft on display at The Grove in Los Angeles for folks to take a look at.

The most unique part is that it can take off and land vertically, but it flies like a plane.

“It frees you from the traffic in a way that you just can’t right now with any other technology,” explained Joby Chief Product Officer Eric Allison, who was really enthusiastic about the potential of it all.

The fully electric aircraft can cruise at 200 miles an hour and has a range of about 100 miles. Its propellers point up for takeoff and switch forward for cruising.

Engineers worked to make it operate as quietly as possible, which is important if they want cities to embrace yet another buzzy thing flying above their heads.

“It can fly really quietly. So if it was flying over here at about a thousand feet, which is like low even for a helicopter, it basically would be silent. You wouldn’t hear it as it flies over,” said Allison.

I couldn’t fact-check him on this since the model they set up at the Grove wasn’t actually working—although I was told it was mostly the real thing.

Outside, it looks like a space-age design. Inside, it’s clean and simple, with a look reminiscent of Tesla’s software-driven design.

The aircraft can be flown remotely, but due to FAA regulations, a pilot will be on board for passenger trips.

“I think that it starts to change our relationship with mobility. It starts to change about how we think about moving around our cities. And I think it makes the world a better place,” said Allison.

Los Angeles is a target launch market, and although Joby couldn’t tell me exactly when we’ll see these birds in the sky, the Olympics are coming and the mayor has already pledged to make them car-less. This would fit into that mandate.

Dreadful LA trips, like LAX to downtown, downtown to Santa Monica or the Valley to pretty much anywhere would take minutes instead of an hour.

Joby envisions a network of “vertiports” across the city where aircraft would take off and land. You would walk, ride a bike, or rideshare to them.

The aircraft was attracting quite a crowd of onlookers at the Grove. Those I spoke with said they would happily embrace this high-flying way to avoid traffic jams.

The big question: is it safe? While I couldn’t go for a ride just yet, and even Allison admitted he hadn’t been up in it just yet, he told me they’ve built redundant systems into almost every aspect of the aircraft.

As for price, the rich will undoubtedly get richer as they save time flying high above the rest of us still sitting in traffic, but Joby says the cost of a flight should come down over time.

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