Flying taxi company Joby Aviation scoops up autonomous tech with an eye toward defense contracts

One company’s aim at becoming the Uber of the air is adding some rocket boosters.

Joby Aviation, a California-based electric air taxi company, announced that it is acquiring the autonomy division of Xwing Inc., a firm that develops autonomous technology for aircrafts.

Interestingly, Joby notes that it expects that the acquisition will help bring it closer to “fully autonomous operations in the future,” per a company press release, and that the technology will “play an important role in accelerating the execution of existing contract deliverables with the U.S. Department of Defense and expanding the potential for future contracts.”

What is Xwing?

Xwing’s systems allow pilots to remotely supervise flights from the ground, and it’s received official project designation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It has also been working with the U.S. Air Force and NASA on projects—an important element in the acquisition.

Joby says that Xwing’s engineers and others will be integrated into Joby’s process, and “will focus on the increased automation and autonomy roadmap for the Joby aircraft as well as expanding opportunities to partner with the Department of Defense on technology development.”

“The aircraft we are certifying will have a fully-qualified pilot on board, but we recognize 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,” said JoeBen Bevirt, the founder and CEO of Joby, in a statement.

Earlier this year, Xwing’s technology piloted a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan as a part of an Air Force exercise, Agile Flag 24-1, landing at several military and public airports. Effectively, it demonstrated that autonomous aircraft have the ability to mesh into the airspace system, even if we’re likely still a long way from it. 

News of the acquisition is yet another headline in a series of ongoing developments for Joby, which recently signed an agreement to start flying air taxis in the United Arab Emirates in 2026. The firm flew an air taxi in New York City last November, and it has started building a production facility in Ohio.

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