Joby Collaborates with Abu Dhabi “to Establish Electric Air Taxi Ecosystem”

Joby Avi­a­tion announced this week, it has signed a mul­ti­lat­er­al Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with the Abu Dhabi Depart­ment of Munic­i­pal­i­ties and Trans­port (DMT), the Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment (DED) and the Depart­ment of Cul­ture and Tourism (DCT), which lays the ground­work for Joby to estab­lish and scale air taxi ser­vices in the cap­i­tal of the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates and beyond, reports a press release.

The MOU, signed at the DRIFTx inau­gur­al event, held at the Las Mari­na Cir­cuit on April 26th-27th, “demon­strates the breadth of sup­port avail­able to Joby as part of their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Smart and Autonomous Vehi­cles Indus­try (SAVI) clus­ter and builds on Joby’s exist­ing com­mit­ments to the UAE, includ­ing the exclu­sive right to oper­ate air taxi ser­vices in Dubai, which the com­pa­ny expects to start as ear­ly as next year,” explains the release. “The agree­ment also unlocks the poten­tial for inter-emi­rate air taxi ser­vices, for exam­ple, between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.”

https://www.mediaoffice.abudhabi/en/transport/driftx-underway-at-yas-marina-circuit-in-abu-dhabi/

JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Avi­a­tion, com­ment­ed, “The agree­ment demon­strates the incred­i­ble momen­tum behind the adop­tion of clean flight across the UAE. We remain deeply impressed by their com­mit­ment to build­ing out a world-class avi­a­tion ecosys­tem in the Emi­rate and are look­ing for­ward to deliv­er­ing a fan­tas­tic expe­ri­ence for our future cus­tomers in Abu Dhabi.” 

His Excel­len­cy Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, Chair­man of DMT, added, “Abu Dhabi aims to spear­head the advance­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of the next era of advanced mobil­i­ty solu­tions.” He con­tin­ued, “Through the Emirate’s SAVI clus­ter and this vision­ary part­ner­ship with Joby, we are not only lay­ing the foun­da­tion for cut­ting-edge air taxi ser­vices but also shap­ing the future of trans­porta­tion; ignit­ing a jour­ney where the sky is no longer the lim­it, but the begin­ning of end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties.”

Joby’s air­craft, which is on dis­play for the first time in Abu Dhabi at DRIFTx, is designed to car­ry a pilot and four pas­sen­gers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour with zero oper­at­ing emis­sions and a low acoustic foot­print. Its max­i­mum range of 100 miles enables fast and clean air trav­el both with­in Abu Dhabi and across the wider UAE, with a jour­ney from Abu Dhabi to Dubai tak­ing around 30 min­utes com­pared with around two hours by car dur­ing rush hour.

The U.S‑based eVTOL com­pa­ny has been work­ing close­ly with the Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA) of the UAE to define a path to sup­port the region in becom­ing world lead­ers in the intro­duc­tion of air taxis. 

The release con­tin­ues, “The GCAA reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work builds upon FAA stan­dards with addi­tion­al com­pa­ny test­ing and analy­sis along­side a high lev­el of reg­u­la­tor over­sight and an ongo­ing review process to ensure safe­ty for ear­ly oper­a­tions. Inter-emi­rate trav­el would require addi­tion­al approval from the GCAA.”

(Cred­it: Busi­ness Wire)

His Excel­len­cy Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chair­man of the Abu Dhabi Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment (ADDED), remarked, “The devel­op­ment of an advanced indus­tri­al and man­u­fac­tur­ing base is a core dri­ver of Abu Dhabi’s ‘eco­nom­ic diver­si­fi­ca­tion 2.0’ agen­da. It will strength­en the Emirate’s posi­tion as the region’s most com­pet­i­tive indus­tri­al hub by increas­ing access to financ­ing, enhanc­ing ease of doing busi­ness and attract­ing for­eign direct invest­ment.” 

He con­tin­ued, “Smart and autonomous vehi­cles, in par­tic­u­lar, are expe­ri­enc­ing rapid growth, buoyed by the launch of the SAVI clus­ter, which lever­ages Abu Dhabi’s world-class infra­struc­ture to scale the oper­a­tions of glob­al com­pa­nies. Joby’s expan­sion into Abu Dhabi is a tes­ta­ment to the suc­cess of this strat­e­gy.”

H.E. Mohamed Khal­i­fa Al Mubarak, Chair­man of the Abu Dhabi DCT, said, “The MOU aligns with our Tourism Strat­e­gy 2030, which under­scores our com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able growth and strate­gic devel­op­ment in the trav­el and tourism sec­tor. The intro­duc­tion of scale air taxi ser­vices marks a sig­nif­i­cant addi­tion, enhanc­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty to nat­ur­al attrac­tions, tourist hotspots and archi­tec­tur­al land­marks, there­by ele­vat­ing over­all vis­i­tor expe­ri­ences.”

DRIFTx is “an inter­na­tion­al thought-lead­er­ship and exhi­bi­tion plat­form” ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing the future of smart, autonomous and sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty across air, land and sea. Sup­port­ed by the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Office (ADIO) and Abu Dhabi’s SAVI clus­ter, DRIFTx is a lead­ing glob­al event to show­case the lat­est in advanced urban mobil­i­ty, dri­ving dis­cus­sions, col­lab­o­ra­tion and inno­va­tion across the sec­tor.

(Recent­ly Added)

Last week, we announced a mul­ti­lat­er­al agree­ment with three dif­fer­ent Abu Dhabi gov­ern­ment depart­ments to lay the foun­da­tion for an elec­tric air taxi ecosys­tem in the Emi­rate, includ­ing the poten­tial for ser­vice from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.
At DriftX Abu Dhabi, we were thrilled to… pic.twitter.com/aNYCX5NNp3

— Joby Avi­a­tion (@jobyaviation) May 1, 2024

For more infor­ma­tion

www.jobyaviation.com

www.dmt.gov.ae/en

(Top image: Busi­ness Wire)

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