Elevate

History

2020: Joby Aviation purchased division of the flying Elevate taxi from Uber

At the beginning of December, 2020 Uber sold the division of the flying Elevate taxi to the Californian developer of the electric Joby Aviation airplanes. However, the companies describe the transaction as "a new method of partnership" as within the agreement of Uber also invests $75 million in Joby Aviation.

This transaction allows us to strengthen partner relations with Joby, the explicit leader in this area to accelerate entry into the market of our technologies, said in the statement of the chief executive of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi.

Uber sold the division of the flying Elevate taxi

Joby Aviation was a partner of Elevate still before headed business, and both companies stated that they intend to embed services of each other in proprietary applications. The founder of Joby JoeBen Bevirt noted that the Elevate tools and new team members will render to Joby Aviation the invaluable help by preparation of release of commercial products.

Joby is going to release in the next years the flying taxi with "zero emission" which will accomodate four passengers and also to have a possibility of vertical take off and landing. According to the company, flying range of the new taxi will make up to 241 km, and maximum speed - 321 km/h.

Elevate is already the second business which sold Uber for a week. Before Uber announced sale of the business on development of autonomous driving to a startup of Aurora unmanned vehicles. Apparently, thus Uber tries to cut down expenses during a difficult era of a pandemic. Though Uber promised investors that it will reach profitability by the end of 2021, the company nevertheless suffered losses in the amount of $625 million only in autumn quarter. To reach profitability, the company promised to focus on the main platforms of transportation of passengers and deliveries of food, having cut down at the same time expenses on collateral developments.^[1]

Electric vehicles

Notes