Joby’s Pilotless Electric Air Taxi Soars Across San Francisco Bay in Milestone Test

Dawn broke over Oakland, and a sleek Joby electric air taxi took off from the international airport runway as if it ruled the sky. Andrea Pingitore piloted N545JX, which lifted straight up and flew westward over the open water with a nice steady rise. Minutes later, she’d reached the far coast and swung north to take the Marin Headlands under her wing, with the entire San Francisco cityscape visible behind her.

The entire journey was silent as a mouse because no noisy engines were belching out there; the electric motors simply hummed along as the air taxi passed by the Golden Gate Bridge and completed its loop. That was the polar opposite of how things usually are, with all of those gridlocked bridges and freeways below that keep drivers stranded for hours on end, week after week. Joby created this baby to trim the annoying bits down to size, transforming a long drive into a brief breath of fresh air.

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Years of hard work have led up to this point, with the company’s test fleet having already flown over 50,000 miles in thousands of flights, demonstrating that these aircraft can manage crowded city streets with ease. Every system on board is designed to achieve three goals: keeping passengers safe, reducing noise for those on the ground, and providing results. Boy, did that show during the bay crossing, as the craft moved like clockwork even as it passed right past one of the world’s most iconic sights.

The 2026 Electric Skies Tour began, and this identical aircraft will visit cities around the country around the time of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration. Joby wants to give more people the opportunity to see the device up close and get a feel of what it could accomplish for their daily lives without requiring extensive new infrastructure.

Regulatory progress is also backing them up. They’ve been selected to participate in a White House-backed program that allows them to get started early in ten states, ranging from Arizona to Utah. They could start flying sooner rather than later, after all of the agreements are in place and the remaining certifications are completed. Joby has already flown an airplane that meets all federal regulations, preparing for some proper test flights with authorities before the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, manufacturing is ramping up, with a new 700,000 square foot factory being built in Dayton, Ohio, which will eventually produce hundreds of vehicles each year, and they already have some extended locations in California lined up. Production targets state that they intend to reach four aircraft per month by 2027, as the entire network begins to come together.