The flying car ceased to be a joke at some point. It occurred subtly, as most truly disruptive events do, through thousands of small decisions made in government offices, factories, and computer labs rather than in a single big announcement or keynote speech. The Santa Cruz, California-based company Joby Aviation appears to be the closest to fulfilling a century-old promise. And the most intriguing aspect of their approach may be the one that receives the least attention.
The aircraft itself is remarkably silent, almost unnervingly so. It makes about the sound of a typical conversation as it takes off vertically, tilts its rotors, and accelerates to about 200 miles per hour. It is intended for short urban hops that are too long to walk and too crowded to drive, carrying a pilot and four passengers. However, creating a silent aircraft is one thing. Another issue is making it reliable enough to transport strangers through urban airspace, which is where processing power comes into play.
When Joby and NVIDIA announced their partnership in late 2025, Joby became the only aviation company selected as a launch partner for NVIDIA’s next-generation autonomous systems platform. The goal of the partnership is to speed up modeling and simulation tasks that would otherwise take years. Every potential failure mode must be modeled, stress-tested, and documented when a new category of aircraft is being certified. That timeline is significantly compressed by exascale computing, which is processing at a scale that manages more operations per second than most people can meaningfully visualize. This collaboration might be what sets Joby apart from its numerous eVTOL rivals who continue to promote renders and concept videos.
The story of autonomy is more complex than most reporting indicates. Joby finished a defense drill known as Resolute Force Pacific in September 2025, logging over 7,000 autonomous miles over 43 flight hours over Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean. The drone was primarily controlled from ground control stations located more than 3,000 miles away in Guam. The aircraft in question was a Cessna Caravan outfitted with Joby’s Superpilot technology, which allows it to handle cargo delivery, inter-island logistics, and reconnaissance profiles in all airspace classes. In its 2026 budget, the U.S. Air Force requests $9.4 billion for autonomous aerial systems. The item those dollars would purchase is already being built by Joby.
Observing all of this gives me the impression that the aviation sector is going through something similar to what the auto industry went through ten years ago, when Tesla demonstrated that electric cars could be truly fast and people began to take the whole thing seriously. Although there are other companies vying for the same FAA certifications, including Archer Aviation, which operates a factory in Georgia, Joby has made the most progress from concept to product. Currently spanning more than 435,000 square feet, the Marina facility has the capacity to produce up to 24 aircraft annually. In order to reach a long-term capacity of 500 aircraft per year, a second production line is being constructed in Dayton, Ohio.
The first commercial service will probably begin in Dubai in 2026. The city is constructing a vertiport at Dubai International Airport and gave Joby exclusive air taxi rights for six years. The argument is simple: a 12-minute flight versus a 45-minute drive from the airport to Palm Jumeirah. The initial cost will most likely be high. The suspicious frequency with which the word “premium” appears in official statements is likely an honest indication of who will be among the first passengers.
That poses worthwhile questions. Whether eVTOLs will eventually become accessible transit or continue to be a luxury product that transports the wealthy above the traffic that the rest of the city is stuck in is still up for debate. The public’s tolerance for drone-like aircraft humming overhead has not been tested at any significant volume, vertiports do not exist at scale, and air traffic management for low-altitude urban flights is still being worked out.
Even so, it’s difficult to ignore how much has subtly changed. 26 states are currently covered by the FAA’s eVTOL integration program. Contracts for defense are changing. Production is taking place in factories. Real miles are being recorded by test flights. In ways that feel less like marketing and more like physics, the gap that previously killed the flying car—technology, regulation, and capital—has shrunk.
