Flying taxis, once the stuff of sci-fi movies, were widely expected to make a big splash by whizzing over the city of lights during festivities at the Paris Olympics last summer — before getting scrapped due to certification concerns. That isn’t stopping Toyota from pouring more money into air mobility. The Japanese giant is making another $500 million investment in Joby, the California-based company that last November pioneered the first-ever test flight of an air taxi over the skies of a crowded U.S. metropolis (New York City). Just last month, Joby also signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates that could allow for commercial passenger services to start in Dubai as early as 2025. Plans for U.S.-based commercial operations are also underway: Delta Air Lines is in partnership with Joby to eventually offer air taxis as a perk for its travelers, while United Airlines is partnering with Archer Aviation. Air Taxis, also known as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, promise to offer a much faster, quieter, and cleaner (free of carbon emissions) mobility service compared to ground transportation. Joby says its electric air taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Some eVTOL vehicles are also being designed to operate autonomously. Toyota’s interest in Joby began in 2019. With the latest tranche of money, the Japanese giant has now invested close to $900 million to support the certification and commercial production of Joby’s electric air taxi. In addition to money, Toyota says it is investing time and resources to share its knowledge of process planning, manufacturing, and tooling design with the Joby team in California. Last year, the two companies signed an agreement for Toyota to supply key powertrain and actuation components for Joby’s aircraft. Safety and certification processes remain the biggest hurdle for the full development of air taxi services, as the canceled Olympic flight of Germany’s Volocopter demonstrated. But many companies around the world, such as Hyundai and China’s XPeng HT Aero, are also vying for a share of the air mobility market. The ground taxi service and e-hailing market is currently estimated at $500 billion around the world, according to consulting firm McKinsey. And more than 20% of people currently using these ground services can “definitely imagine” hopping on flying taxis. Actual plans for air taxi operations in the U.S. remain so far tied to airport-to-city services. But Joby, for its part, has been looking further ahead ever since it bought Uber Elevate in 2020,and is hoping to someday pair its air taxis with Uber’s ride-hailing app.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.