As Uber continues to get its focus back to its core business, the company has decided to sell its aerial ride-hailing division, Elevate to the California-based company Joby Aviation. The company is also reportedly developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing passenger aircraft. Uber will stick to its core business to reach profitability, something that the startup has struggled with ever since its inception, and while it continues to keep an eye on the aerial ride hailing market by its partnership with Job Aviation.
The deal, however, is complex. The transaction also includes Uber investing $ 75 million in Joby Aviation and the two companies, as mentioned above, have expanded their partnership. The deal will also witness the two companies integrating each other’s services into their applications.
The company, Joby Aviation is committed to launching its air taxi business by 2023. Back in January 2020, Uber invested another $50 million as a part of the company’s Series C funding round. The air aviation taxi company has reportedly raised $820 million to date, of which Uber has invested $125 million.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement, “Advanced air mobility has the potential to be exponentially positive for the environment and future generations. This deal allows us to deepen our partnership with Joby, the clear leader in this field, to accelerate the path to market for these technologies.”
“We were proud to partner with Uber Elevate last year and we’re even prouder to be welcoming them into the Joby team today,” JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, said in a release announcing the deal.
Uber, yesterday, announced that it is selling off its autonomous-driving division, which is also known as Advanced Technologies Group to Aurora, a self-driving car start-up.
Joby Aviation, with the help of Uber, might be able to realize its goal of aerial ride hailing in a few years. Joby Aviation has built their prototype, an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers and a pilot up to 150 miles at a top speed of 200 mph, which the company is currently testing. The company is regularly conducting flight tests however, the aircraft is yet to be certified by the FAA. The company also has not said anything about the pricing of the ride, it would depend on whether the business takes off.
With this sale, and many others like it that were completed this year, Uber has completely changed its business model in 2020, going from ‘let’s try everything’ to ‘let’s just stick to what we do best.’ The company, which in 2019, had divisions for ride hailing, food delivery, autonomous vehicles, flying cars and many more, has decided to trim down its business to finally reach profitability, especially since 2020 was a troublesome year for the transportation industry and losses widened. Now, it looks like it is back to its roots.
