Joby Aviation announced a partnership with Metropolis Technologies to develop 25 vertiport sites across the United States. The collaboration will use Metropolis’s extensive parking network and computer‑vision technology to create compact, high‑throughput vertiports that meet safety and regulatory standards.
By integrating vertiports into existing ground‑transportation hubs, Joby aims to accelerate the rollout of its electric air‑taxi service and reduce the capital expenditure typically associated with building new vertiports from scratch. The partnership also includes Metropolis’s Bags VIP service, which will provide baggage handling for Joby’s Blade Urban Air Mobility flights between Manhattan and JFK or Newark, improving the end‑to‑end passenger experience.
In its most recent quarterly report, Joby reported revenue of $23 million, a $5.17 million beat over analyst expectations, largely driven by $14 million of revenue from the Blade acquisition. The company posted a net loss of $401 million and an EPS of –$0.48, reflecting ongoing investment in development, certification, and infrastructure expansion. The partnership signals management’s confidence in scaling operations while managing costs.
CEO JoeBen Bevirt said, “For air taxis to deliver on their promise of seamless urban travel, they must connect directly with the existing ground transportation ecosystem.” He added that leveraging existing parking infrastructure will maximize value and accelerate deployment, underscoring Joby’s focus on integrated mobility hubs.
Metropolis CEO Alex Israel noted, “The real world is the next frontier for AI, and this partnership marks a critical first step in expanding the Metropolis platform into true mobility hubs.” He emphasized that the AI and computer‑vision capabilities will enable efficient vertiport design and operations, creating new revenue streams for Metropolis in the emerging urban‑air‑mobility sector.
The collaboration positions Joby to capture a larger share of the urban‑mobility market while Metropolis expands its Recognition Economy into UAM. It reflects a broader industry trend of integrating air and ground mobility and underscores the importance of infrastructure partnerships for commercial viability.
Despite the partnership, Joby continues to report significant losses and faces regulatory and public‑acceptance challenges. However, the use of existing infrastructure may reduce capital expenditures and accelerate certification timelines, mitigating some of the company’s headwinds.
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