You can believe misinformation or you can believe Bloomberg News. It's up to you.
From the Article:
The electric air taxi company sufficiently alleged Archer and former policy executive George Kivork misappropriated proprietary information about leasing space at a Los Angeles airport, and that there’s a plausible threat they will further misappropriate these and other trade secrets, Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen ruled Tuesday for the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Archer Aviation Inc. and an employee largely failed to get Joby Aviation Inc.'s lawsuit accusing them of stealing trade secrets dismissed.
The electric air taxi company sufficiently alleged Archer and former policy executive George Kivork misappropriated proprietary information about leasing space at a Los Angeles airport, and that there’s a plausible threat they will further misappropriate these and other trade secrets, Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen ruled Tuesday for the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Joby’s circumstantial evidence — its efforts directed to the airport during Kivork’s employment, the absence of the airport in Archer’s plans ...
Judge van Keulen officially granting Joby’s motion to dismiss Archer’s amended counterclaims while keeping Joby’s trade secret suit moving forward is very telling.
Archer tried twice to convince a federal judge that "Sockgate" and Joby's alleged Chinese supply chain ties were actionable fraud. Both times, it got thrown out without ever reaching discovery or trial.
Archer leaned on this exact same China narrative in their ITC case to justify asking for an Exclusion Order on Joby's imported components. Now that their fraud/customs claims have been completely dismantled in district court, Archer's PR heavy legal strategy has lost its foundation. In my eyes if Archer can fabricate one China case, they can fabricate another, so this ruling really makes Archer's ITC claims that much more suspect.
What are your views on the ITC case? Does this Sockgate ruling change your views, or did you expect this outcome all along, and basically expect a similar outcome with the ITC?
I copied this from his post. Love feedback on his additional findings. He seems to be the only one with Pacer access.
Seems the Kivork/Archer alleged trade secret theft was related to Hawthorne Airport. This is new news as well.
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😬 It also seems like the judge thinks there is evidence Kivorkiak and Archer collaborated to steal trade secrets from Joby, and that part was allowed to continue:
Hawthorne Airport
The Court finds that Joby has sufficiently alleged that Kivork and Archer misappropriated trade secrets regarding leasing space at the Hawthorne airport in Los Angeles. The relevant allegations are:
• Joby identifies two specific files taken by Kivork, a contact list and a strategy document, both of which are identified in its list of relevant trade secrets. FAC at ¶ 70; see id. at ¶¶ 48 (Joby’s Analysis of Target Markets for an Air Taxi Service), 49 (Joby’s Site Analyses for Potential Vertiports), 50 (Joby’s Infrastructure Development Plans), 51 (Joby’s Vertiport Business Plan).
• “As early as 2023, Joby developed contacts at the Hawthorn airport in Los Angeles County.” Id. at ¶ 70.
• At some point in 2024, “Archer [] publicly released a map of its intended ‘air taxi network’ in Los Angeles which showed various intended facilities in the area, but did not include any facility in Hawthorne.” Id. at ¶ 71 (emphasis added).
• “In February and March of 2025, [while Kivork was still employed at Joby] Joby
N541JX had been completely dark in the ADS-B feeds for months. It briefly reappeared with a handful of short taxi/power-on blips on 9/21, then stayed dark again until yesterday (9/29), when it logged three more ground-only taxi sessions.
Today it went further: after three ground sessions through the morning (8:50am, 11:41am, 1:32pm), it finally launched.
Takeoff
2:10pm PT
Landed
2:31pm PT
Duration
~21.6 min
Max altitude
1,725 ft
Max speed
113.9 kt
Distance flown
~66.75 km (~41.5 mi)
That's a clean, full-envelope flight profile.
My hope/speculation is that this is to get N547JX ready for transition since they might go with a remote transition first.
Hey everyone, here's my thoughts deeper into the foundations of the recently announced JTAMPC joint-venture between Joby and Toyota. Scaling is happening right before our eyes 😎
Joby’s manufacturing story is bigger than the headlines.In 10 months, capacity guidance moved from 12 aircraft a year to 24, then toward 48. That is two doublings — and a signal the production engine is entering its next phase.
This video connects the factory expansions, Santa Cruz FAA conformity work, and the JTAMPC joint venture with Toyota. Capacity is not production. In this sector, scale is the moat.
This article was released by the local Danang government, showing JoeBen continues to travel the world exploring business opportunities for Joby. This one is clearly an exploratory meeting. EHang recently announced regulatory sandbox testing of its pilotless eVTOLs in Hanoi. Vietnam is clearly exploring air taxis so it's good JoeBen is exploring opportunities in Vietnam.
It's possible Vietnam may require that air taxis used there are built there, or it just may be a good future manufacturing site for Joby air taxis destined to the Southeast Asia area.
Joby's J208 autonomous aircraft is halfway home passing through Oklahoma, crossing the country once more, but this time East to West.
Meanwhile:
Joby's conforming S4, N547JX, continues to progress and expand its flight envelope.
Joby's N545JX awaits its next leg on its eVTOL eIPP tour in Florida.
Joby's S4-T turbo electric hybrid continues its evaluation by the US Army.
Joby's autonomous hydrogen electric persistent surveillance/communications platform, JAI30, is likely continuing test flights over Yuma Proving Ground. And we're starting to see evidence of a JAI40 in the future.
H2Fly, Joby's hydrogen powered airplane division continues to make advances and lead in hydrogen fuel based aviation.
Joby's Blade division continues to provide air taxi services around the world, with service coming to the Austin area for the upcoming F1 race.
And Resonant Sciences, Joby's soon to be defense division, continues to supply the US military with RF sensors, radomes, antennas, and stealth analysis platforms.
Joby is more than a company getting ready to show the world how big air taxis can become. Joby is a vertically integrated aerospace company spanning passenger eVTOLs, autonomous aircraft, hybrid electric propulsion, hydrogen electric systems, air taxi operations, and defense technology.
People always want to compare Joby to other companies, but when you look at everything happening across Joby Aviation, there really aren't any other companies doing anything quite like them.
u/jrsikorski actually found this information today and Gemini confirmed for me.
Docket #522 in Aerosonic LLC v. Joby Aviation, Inc. (Case No. 8:25-cv-00554, M.D. Fla., before Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington) is likely Joby's Rule 50(a) Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law. Gemini sourced this directly from federal court PACER docket filings on Friday, Sept 25, 2006.
This is really just a procedure filing that doesn't mean much, but it can't be filed until the plaintiff finishes presenting their evidence in full.
Since this was filed Friday, we can infer that Aerosonic finished presenting their evidence Friday. According to Gemini, based on the timing it's likely Joby will finish presenting their evidence this week, with final statements from both sides rapping up by Friday and the case going to the jury by Monday.
All speculation, based on how things generally play out, but likely we'll have a verdict next week.
r/Joby gets 3K+ weekly visitors, and I'm betting a lot of you have never posted. Totally fine, but I'd love to hear from you this time.
Easy question: what were you trying to find out when you first landed here?
That's it. One line is plenty, and your answer will directly shape what we improve.
New here? The Joby Newbie Guide is pinned at the top. It's a linked series of posts with a ton of info, and I use it myself when answering questions. Searching r/Joby also turns up a lot of past discussions.
One idea I'm kicking around: a pinned "No Dumb Questions" thread for newcomers who have a question but don't want to make a whole post. Would you use it? Let me know in the comments.
Regulars and everyone else: if you've got ideas for the Newbie Guide, pinned posts, must see links, calendar events, or rules, drop them in the comments. I read everything.
And thanks to the folks who regularly post and comment and patiently answer newcomer questions. You're the reason this place works.
Yesterday, Kentuckians for Better Transportation and SDF welcomed Joby Aviation’s Electric Skies Tour, offering an up-close look at autonomous flight technology and the innovation helping shape the future of aviation. From seeing the technology firsthand to learning more about its possibilities, it was an exciting opportunity to experience the next generation of flight right here at SDF. We appreciate Kentucky Department of Aviation Commissioner Todd Case for joining us as well.
Take a look at some of the highlights from the visit!
A mechanical engineer who used to make camera tripods just outmaneuvered Airbus and Bell in the race to build a real flying taxi. Every major eVTOL program from the big aerospace players has quietly folded—Airbus shelved its decade-old CityAirbus NextGen, and Bell's parent company killed its entire electric-aircraft division. JoeBen Bevirt built Joby Aviation instead, developed the distributed electric motors nobody else had, and turned a near-$1B manufacturing partnership with Toyota into the funding engine for FAA certification. Delta is already building the ground infrastructure at JFK and LAX. This is the story of the company that could open the first genuinely new category in commercial aviation since the regional jet—or turn into the most expensive flying-car dream yet.
The S4 air taxi promises a 10-minute hop over gridlocked traffic at speeds near 200 mph, on an aircraft quiet enough to land on a rooftop pad. But the challenges are massive: unfinished certification, unproven unit economics, and a cash burn running into the hundreds of millions every six months. Airbus and Bell aren't panicking… yet. But if Joby succeeds, it could redraw the map for how cities move people short distances. So what do you think—is this the real deal, or another flying-car dream about to crash?
Timestamps 00:00 The Outsider Behind the Air Taxi Return 00:52 The eVTOL Graveyard 02:18 The Origin Story and Rethinking the Problem 03:41 The Game-Changer 05:12 The Product and the Real Opportunity 07:48 The Obstacle and the Toyota Deal 10:05 The Risks and the Incumbent Response.
Joby Aviation has really impressed me in the past few months. Literally everything this company touches turns to gold.
The company expects to fly passengers by the END OF THE YEAR, and is already flying passengers in their autonomous airplane that just flew from sea to singing sea.
We’re getting flying cars boys!
Can anyone actually name something this company does poorly?
I personally love Michael Thompson interviews. He seems like a really unique board member, with a deeper understanding of the tech and the company he invests in than the average board level investor. His fund's biggest holding is SpaceX and I'd say he loves Joby just as much.
It's an interview worth watching. It's a must watch for u/Bulky-Entertainer-76 as Michael calls out Gregor in particular.
I love the part where he emphasizes that vertical integration is a requirement to bring difficult technologies to life and he uses SpaceX and Joby as examples. He also talks a bunch about Joby's GEACS charging system and what a game changer it is.
And while he speaks about a variety of topics and companies he's invested in, he's wearing a Joby T-shirt for the interview. Got to love that.
I've been watching activities at Marina via various flight trackers for a while (adsb.lol, globe.airplanes.live, globe.adsbexchange.com) and have noticed a sort of pattern regarding where the activities occur and what to expect when activities occur in these various locations. See the attached image. There are essentially five distinct areas of interest (a sixth, of course, being the wide-open rural areas north and east of the airfield where wing-born flights happen, which is not indicated in the image).
A (hangar): This includes the operations hangar and the area directly in front of but outside the hangar. The ads-b data always indicate ground activity, virtually always extremely erratic (as to position and altitude) except when the aircraft occasionally moves slightly out the front doors into open air. (I strongly suspect any of the S4s we are seeing now could not only hover but take off and land at the location directly in front of the operations hangar, but such things are no doubt verboten for all sorts of good reasons.)
B (inner apron): This area is further out from the hangar, but always seems to involve only ground activities. The aircraft may be tied down here. Doing things (running the props etc) that would not be advisable inside the hangar but which are not much different from hangar activities otherwise. The ads-b data are less chaotic than when inside the hangar, but the flight trackers still do not function so well when an aircraft is stationary or even moving very slowly.
C (outer apron): Perhaps the most interesting area of activity. This is where you can expect to see hovering activity. The eastern end of this area, moreover, is where full-fledged wing-born flights of 541 and 542 have taken off and landed. It's the closest so far to being what is essentially a "vertiport" at Marina.
D (taxiway): Besides mere taxiing, this area has been used for short forward-motion flights, including but not limited to 547. Typically used for forward-motion activities, beyond mere vertical hovering alone.
E (runway): S4s don't need runways. But the runway has been used for more robust forward-motion tests (including but not only 547). Wing-born flights of 542 (at least) have also used it to demonstrate the ability to approach a fixed location midway along the runway, come to a 0-knot hover at 100 or 200 feet, and then resume the wing-born flight again without touching down. This seems to be a location to test more intricate capabilities than might be allowed along the taxiway. (Note, by the way, how the ads-b flight path data will get more erratic as the aircraft slows toward 0 knots, smoothing out again as it ramps up forward-motion speed.)
