- Xwing is an industry leader in the development
of autonomous technology for aviation
- Acquisition supports Joby’s long-term vision
of making aerial mobility as accessible as possible through the
adoption of autonomous technologies
- Expected to accelerate existing and potential
future contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense
- Underscores Joby’s leadership position as a
next generation aviation company
Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY), a company developing electric
air taxis for commercial passenger service, today announced the
acquisition of the autonomy division of Xwing Inc., an industry
leader in the development of autonomous technology for
aviation.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240604358584/en/
Joby announced the acquisition of the
autonomy division of Xwing, Inc., an industry leader in the
development of autonomous technology for aviation. Joby Aviation
Image
Founded in 2016, Xwing has been flying autonomous aircraft since
2020, using the Superpilot software it has developed in-house.
Superpilot enables safe, uncrewed operations, supervised from the
ground, and is the world’s first fully autonomous gate-to-gate
flight technology. With 250 fully autonomous flights and more than
500 auto-landings completed to date, Xwing became the first company
to receive an official project designation for the certification of
a large unmanned aerial system (UAS) from the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) in April 2023 and the first to receive an Air
Force Military Flight Release in 2024.
The acquisition brings Joby to the forefront of aviation
autonomy and complements the Company’s 2021 acquisition of Inras
GmbH, a company developing lightweight, high-performance radar
sensor technology. Xwing’s comprehensive approach, and expertise in
perception technology, system integration and certification, is
expected to benefit both near-term piloted operations for Joby as
well as fully autonomous operations in the future. The Company also
expects the technology to 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.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO, said: “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.
“The exceptionally talented Xwing team has not only made
unparalleled progress on the development and certification of
vision systems, sensor fusion and decision-making autonomous
technologies, but they’ve also successfully demonstrated the
real-life application of their technology, flying hundreds of fully
autonomous flights in the national airspace. We’re honored to bring
them onboard at Joby as we continue on our mission of building a
next generation aviation company.”
A diverse set of engineers, researchers and technologists from
Xwing will now be integrated into Joby where they 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.
Maxime Gariel, co-founder, President and Chief Technical
Officer, Xwing, added: “Xwing’s goal of connecting communities with
clean and affordable autonomous flight aligns closely with Joby’s
long-term vision. I am incredibly proud of each member of the Xwing
team and everything this talented group has achieved to date. For
the past 7 years, our team has broken barriers to advance aviation
autonomy. Now, as we join forces with the leading electric air-taxi
developer, I can’t imagine a better home for the Xwing team to
realize our shared vision.”
Xwing’s autonomous flights were completed using a Cessna 208B
Grand Caravan aircraft, allowing the team to focus on areas such as
vision system processing, detect and avoid algorithms, mission
management including trajectory planning and real-time updates,
decision making, ground control stations, remote operations and the
integration of AI and machine learning algorithms.
In early 2024, the aircraft participated in the Air Force’s
Agile Flag 24-1 Joint Force exercise, during which it completed
daily flights, covering around 2,800 miles and landing at eight
public and military airports, demonstrating the ability to
integrate autonomous aircraft into the national airspace
system.
"Autonomous systems are increasingly prolific in the private
sector, and bring potentially game changing advantages to the Air
Force as well," said Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX director and chief
commercialization officer for the Department of the Air Force. "We
created Autonomy Prime to keep up with this shift, and to stay
engaged as a partner while this technology evolves, so that we can
adapt and evolve along with the private sector, maintaining our
competitive advantage."
The acquisition covers all of Xwing’s existing automation and
autonomy technology activities and was paid for with Joby shares.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
About Joby
Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) is a California-based
transportation company developing an all-electric, vertical
take-off and landing air taxi which it intends to operate as part
of a fast, quiet, and convenient service in cities around the
world. To learn more, visit www.jobyaviation.com.
About AFWERX
As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the
Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American
ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most
pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370
military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites
executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has
executed over 6,100 new contracts worth more than $4 billion to
strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster
technology transition to operational capability. For more
information, visit: www.afwerx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited
to, statements regarding the development and performance of our
aircraft, our regulatory outlook, progress and timing; our business
plan, objectives, goals and market opportunity, including potential
benefits of autonomous technology on the development of our
aircraft, our current and future contracts with the U.S. Department
of Defense and our business; and our current expectations relating
to our business, financial condition, results of operations,
prospects, capital needs and growth of our operations. You can
identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not
relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements
may include words such as “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”,
“project”, “plan”, “intend”, “believe”, “may”, “will”, “should”,
“can have”, “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning
in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future
operating or financial performance or other events. All forward
looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may
cause actual results to differ materially, including: our ability
to launch our aerial ridesharing service and the growth of the
urban air mobility market generally; our ability to produce
aircraft that meet our performance expectations in the volumes and
on the timelines that we project, and our ability to launch our
service; the competitive environment in which we operate; our
future capital needs; our ability to adequately protect and enforce
our intellectual property rights; our ability to effectively
respond to evolving regulations and standards relating to our
aircraft; our ability to integrate the Xwing team into our
operations; uncertainty around the requirements for, and timing of,
certification of autonomous aircraft operations; our reliance on
third-party suppliers and service partners; uncertainties related
to our estimates of the size of the market for our service and
future revenue opportunities; and other important factors discussed
in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form
10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)
on February 27, 2024, and in future filings and other reports we
file with or furnish to the SEC. Any such forward-looking
statements represent management’s estimates and beliefs as of the
date of this release. While we may elect to update such
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim
any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views
to change.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240604358584/en/
Joby Aviation
Investors: investors@jobyaviation.com
Media: press@jobyaviation.com
Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024
Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024