Rideshare driving has always been about connecting people with fast, reliable ways to get where they need to go. Now, Uber is preparing to take that mission to the skies. Beginning in 2026, passengers will be able to book Blade Air Mobility helicopter and seaplane rides directly through the Uber app, with electric air taxis from Joby Aviation to follow.
“We’re excited to introduce Uber customers to the magic of seamless urban air travel,” said Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “Integrating Blade into the Uber app is the natural next step in our global partnership with Uber and will lay the foundation for the introduction of our quiet, zero-emissions aircraft in the years ahead.”
For drivers who’ve followed Uber’s long-term interest in air mobility, this is a big step forward. Joby has been working with Uber since 2019 to bring flying rides to the platform. The company even bought Uber’s Elevate division back in 2020, which had been testing short helicopter hops in New York City under the Uber Copter brand.
“Since Uber’s earliest days, we’ve believed in the power of advanced air mobility to deliver safe, quiet, and sustainable transportation to cities around the world,” said Uber president and COO Andrew Macdonald. “By harnessing the scale of the Uber platform and partnering with Joby, the industry leader in advanced air mobility, we’re excited to bring our customers the next generation of travel.”
By acquiring Blade, Joby gained not just helicopters, but also Blade’s terminals and loyal passenger base in New York, New Jersey, and Southern Europe. The long-term goal is to move those same customers onto Joby’s fully electric, zero-emissions aircraft — vehicles that are quieter, cleaner, and designed to blend into city soundscapes.
Joby’s JAS4-1 eVTOL is a four-seat electric aircraft, engineered from the ground up to cut noise. Austin Thai, a senior acoustics engineer at Joby, explained in a blog post: “Every detail, including propeller shape, radius, blade count, and tip speed, was engineered from the ground up to keep noise to a minimum.”
That claim isn’t just marketing. In a recent noise study done with Blue Ridge Research and Consulting, Joby’s aircraft was compared against traditional helicopters flying from downtown Los Angeles to John Wayne Airport.
“Over an entire round-trip flight between the locations we modeled, noise from our aircraft was greater than the ambient noise for only 0.17 square miles. When our aircraft is cruising (i.e., not taking off or landing, which requires more thrust), this dropped to 0.004 square miles,” Thai wrote. “To put this in perspective, noise from a traditional helicopter on the same route was above ambient conditions for 45 square miles, potentially disrupting thousands of people.”
That research builds on earlier tests Joby conducted with NASA under the Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign. Using AI-driven models trained on noise data from nearly 800 U.S. cities, the company has been able to predict how its aircraft will sound in real-world urban environments.
To give the public a sense of what’s coming, Joby even launched a free iOS and macOS app called Joby Sounds. The app lets users compare the noise levels of Joby’s eVTOL aircraft against helicopters and jets in familiar settings like city parks or outdoor cafés.
For rideshare drivers, this development may feel far removed from daily road trips with passengers — but it points to a future where “ridesharing” could include air as well as ground. Uber’s expansion into helicopters and electric air taxis shows how quickly the definition of rideshare is evolving, and it may only be a matter of time before drivers see new opportunities connected to this next chapter in urban transportation.
Source: AIN Online
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