Toyota invests $394m in Joby Aviation's flying taxis

There are <i>a lot</i> of companies working on &quot;flying taxis&quot;.<p>All of those seem to have a large footprint with lots of rotors, meaning they will need dedicated landing&#x2F;take off zones.<p>This seems to limit their usability a lot, turning them more into a short range point to point helicopter service.<p>Not to mention the noise pollution. Those things are all loud.<p>Combine that with limited speed and range, and I just don&#x27;t see the concept taking off in a big way.<p>Some other competitors:<p>* Volocopter: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.volocopter.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.volocopter.com</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OazFiIhwAEs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OazFiIhwAEs</a><p>* Hyunday S-A1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=L6K7GAG1Aas" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=L6K7GAG1Aas</a><p>* Bell Nexus: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bellflight.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;bell-nexus" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bellflight.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;bell-nexus</a><p>* Ehang: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ehang.com&#x2F;ehang184&#x2F;index" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ehang.com&#x2F;ehang184&#x2F;index</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d66MoI4GdFs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d66MoI4GdFs</a><p>* Kitty Hawk HeavySide (Larry Page pet project): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kittyhawk.aero" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kittyhawk.aero</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=q7mc3C19kE4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=q7mc3C19kE4</a><p>* Lilium (branded as jet): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lilium.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lilium.com</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8qotuu8JjQM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8qotuu8JjQM</a>

If an aircraft can’t glide or autorotate then I don’t understand how it can be safe at low altitudes. Because whole plane parachutes (BRS) have a minimum altitude required to open successfully, and that altitude is a lot higher than anyone would care to drop.<p>Airplanes have energy from their forward motion. Helicopters have energy in their rotor blades. This energy can be used to soften a crash landing. Without this available energy, and without a parachute, then how do you soften a crash and survive?<p>People say that electric motors are so reliable... But batteries can spontaneously combust.<p>I would like to know how these aircraft are safe enough to be treated the same as a taxi ride.

This is pretty much everything you need to know about Toyota - everything you need to know about corporate Japan - wrapped up neatly in one anecdote. Toyota can’t make a plug-in electric car to save themselves but for white elephants like flying cars and smart cities they are all in.

Every $1 spent on noisy technology should require a $50 investment in tinnitus research.

As others have said, building the physical vehicles is a crowded space to enter, whereas there seem to be far fewer ventures involving the enabling infastructure (e.g. 3D spacetime routing&#x2F;scheduling, monitoring, ledgering).

There are already commercial air taxis and helicopter services serving &lt;300km market. Both are barely doing it financially.<p>Now think how a technical solution grossly inferior to both helicopter and a prop plane will fare in the market.

Is it just me or...<p>Why do we need to have startup founders and car companies try their hand at building a new experimental electric helicopter to validate whether or not the market wants to use helicopters for ride hailing?

They can carry five people 150 miles at up to 200 mph on a single charge?<p>If that&#x27;s accurate, isn&#x27;t this a huge step forward for an electric vehicle?

One only see a few helicopters at time in typical city skyline.<p>I wonder what happen if there are just 100 of them on the air at the same time.

<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.md&#x2F;7LEjj" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.md&#x2F;7LEjj</a>

&gt; Joby says it will manufacture prototypes at a facility in Marina, California, near Monterey, but plans to tap Toyota’s famous manufacturing prowess to build “highly reliable complex hardware at increased scale,” said Paul Sciarra, Joby’s executive chairman and a co-founder of Pinterest.<p>More glorified complexity. I would pay more to ride in something with highly reliable simple hardware.

This makes a lot of sense for Toyota. Their hydrogen fuel cells probably make a lot more sense in this context.