Image Credit: Captain Electro.
We all know this feeling too well. You're sitting in traffic on the 405, or the M25, or whatever fresh hell of a highway serves your local metropolis, and you look up at the sky. You see a bird. And for a split second, you hate that bird. You hate its freedom. You hate its ability to just… go. Well, cheer up. The future is finally here, it's electric, and it's been doing laps around Mount Fuji while the rest of us were stuck in gridlock.
Joby Aviation - a company that sounds less like an aerospace giant and more like a friendly golden retriever - has just wrapped up 2025. And unlike my gym membership, they actually used it. They've been busy proving that the dream of the "flying car" (which, let's be pedantic, is actually an eVTOL, but who has the time?) isn't just science fiction for people who watch too much Jetsons.
Image Credit: Joby Aviation.
So, what has Joby been up to? While we were trying to figure out if our toasters were spying on us, Joby was busy racking up 50,000 miles across their fleet - that's roughly twice around the Earth. The big finale for 2025 took place in Japan, at the Fuji Speedway, because nothing says "future of public transport" like hovering over a tarmac usually reserved for screaming petrol engines.
Joby completed 14 piloted flights there, part of a collaboration with Toyota. And honestly? Having Toyota involved is the most reassuring thing I've heard all year. If there's one company that knows how to make a machine that starts every morning without complaining, it's the people who built the Corolla.
Image Credit: Joby Aviation.
Is Joby's flying machine just a drone that got into the steroid cabinet? Not quite. The Joby S4 is a serious piece of kit. It's got six propellers, which tilt. Tilting things are cool. Ask any V-22 Osprey pilot - actually, don't, they're usually busy sweating. But Joby seems to have nailed it.
Here is the "pub trivia" section you didn't ask for but absolutely need: The S4 is about 21 feet long with a wingspan of 38 feet. So, no, it won't fit in your garage unless you live in an aircraft hangar. It cruises at 200 mph. Six dual-wound electric motors - if you combined them, they'd put out a peak power roughly double that of a Tesla Model S Plaid. The S4 is running on a lithium-ion cocktail with about 150 miles of range. And you can't buy one. Sorry. It's expected to cost around $1.3 million to build, but for you and me, it'll likely cost the price of an Uber Black to rent a seat.
Image Credit: Joby Aviation.
Joby didn't just stick to Japan. 2025 saw the company behaving like a rock band on a world tour. They went to the UAE to fly in the deserts of Dubai. I guess if an electric aircraft can survive that heat, it can survive anything. Joby was the only electric vertical takeoff thingy at the Dubai Airshow, effectively mic-dropping on the entire industry.
Back in the States, they've been doing "point-to-point" flights. They flew from Marina to Monterey, California. That's a drive that usually involves scenic views and tourists driving at 4 mph. Joby did it in minutes. They even flew a turbine-electric demonstrator, just to show they could, and logged 7,000 miles with something called "Superpilot" - an autonomous flight technology. Great. Now even the pilots are getting replaced by robots. At least the robot won't judge me for being nervous during turbulence.
Image Credit: Joby Aviation.
Curiously, Joby bought a helicopter service called Blade - not the vampire hunter, sadly - and used it to shuttle 2,500 golf fans to the Ryder Cup in New York. Technically, they used "normal" helicopters for this, which feels a bit like promoting a vegan restaurant by serving steak. But the point was to test the logistics. Joby wanted to see if they could handle the chaos of moving that many people without losing anyone's luggage or sanity. Apparently, it worked.
But because I am a journalist and therefore required to be a professional buzzkill, we have to talk about the timeline. Everyone wants to know: "When can I fly over the people stuck on the I-95?" Joby says they want to carry passengers in 2026. But there's a group of analysts at SMG Consulting who are looking at their watches and shaking their heads. They think it's going to be mid-to-late 2027. Why? Because of the FAA.
Image Credit: Joby Aviation.
The Federal Aviation Administration is a lovely organization that enjoys paperwork more than life itself. Joby needs to get through "Type Inspection Authorization" (TIA), and that's taking longer than expected. SMG's head honcho, Sergio Cecutta, pointed out that Joby's certification fleet only flew about 100 hours in 2025. That's... not a lot. I've spent more time than that waiting for my luggage at Heathrow.
So, where does that leave us? Joby is undoubtedly leading the pack. They have the miles, they have the Toyota money, and they have a machine that doesn't sound like a chainsaw fighting a lawnmower. It's quiet, it's fast, and it's undeniably cool.
But are we going to be zipping around in these things next year? I wouldn't bet the farm on it. The technology is ready to rock, but the rubber stamp is still stuck in a drawer in Washington. Until then, you'll just have to keep looking up at the birds and seething with jealousy. Don't worry, the future is coming. It's just stuck in a bit of regulatory traffic.
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