Electric taxis are stuck in court

This It’s a stepbacka weekly newsletter covering one important story from the world of technology. For more on flying, air taxis, and Wi-Fi speeds at 30,000 feet, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. It’s a stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Choose to log in It’s a stepback here.

Last year, two leading taxi companies in the US, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, sued each other, with Joby accusing Archer of corporate espionage and Archer saying Joby was hiding its ties to China. Then in February of this year, Archer filed a patent infringement suit against another air taxi competitor, Vertical Aerospace, accusing it of copying its “Midnight” design for its “Valo” aircraft.

The allegations come less than two years after Archer settled its dispute with Boeing-backed Wisk Aero over alleged theft of trade secrets – but the case was reopened when Wisk sought court help to determine the terms of the deal.

These heated court battles come at a critical time for the air taxi industry, as it tries to position its technology as an important new form of urban transportation with the ability to transport passengers around cities without the noise or air pollution of a traditional helicopter.

Despite these promises, the industry is facing many problems. Air taxi stocks have lost most of their value in the past few years as certification deadlines loom. Budgets are shrinking as time periods get longer. And investors, already wary of the industry’s ability to win regulatory approval, are growing nervous about the huge costs these lawsuits require.

As companies race to dominate the new, potentially multibillion-dollar aviation industry, these battles over intellectual property, competition, and talent are creating a wave of lawsuits that could make it very difficult for the electric taxi industry to get off the ground.

Being one hour away from each other in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joby and Archer have become bitter rivals in the race to become the Uber of the sky. Over the past year, they have been embroiled in a series of lawsuits and counter-suits touting their products and progress.

In a lawsuit filed in November 2025, Joby accused Archer of corporate espionage, citing a former Joby employee who left to work for Archer. Joby alleges that the ex-employee stole sensitive technical and communications information to give to his new employer. “The archer recklessly used the stolen information,” Joby said in his complaint.

In March of this year, Archer fired back, accusing Joby of defrauding the US government by misclassifying parts imported from China. The plan, Archer said, also includes classifying parts of China’s aircraft as consumer goods such as “hair clips” and “socks.” The countersuit appears to have been settled; a month later, the International Trade Commission opened an investigation into Joby’s relationship with China, investigating whether the company violated tax or copyright law. The ongoing investigation could delay Joby’s plans to launch an air taxi service in 2028.

But Joby isn’t the only rival in Archer’s crosshairs. In February, Archer filed a lawsuit against the UK’s Vertical Aerospace, accusing it of plagiarizing its eVTOL designs. Archer’s Midnight and Vertical’s Valo are both four-passenger aircraft with electric motors and tilt-rotor propellers designed for vertical takeoff and landing. Both have a cruising speed of 150mph and a maximum range of 100 miles.

“It’s clear that Vertical’s Valo aircraft mimics many of Midnight’s unique features,” Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief strategy and legal officer, said in a statement. The Verge. Vertical Aerospace spokesman Justin Bates said Archer’s claims are “baseless” and a “distraction” from the company’s challenges in the market.

No air taxi company has fully completed the rigorous FAA type certification required to fly passengers commercially in the US. But both Joby and Archer say they are close.

The work is widely regarded as outstanding, having progressed through all four stages of the certification process. The company produces about one plane a month and is currently working on a production version that will go through the FAA approval process. In April, Joby demonstrated one of its aircraft flying from JFK Airport to Lower Manhattan as a preview of future taxi routes. The company plans to launch its first passenger service in Dubai, where certification requirements are less stringent than in the US, later this year.

Archer, meanwhile, is still working on a pre-production model and has progressed through three of the four certification stages. The company said it will be ready for riders in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

But investors are unimpressed by the companies’ claims that they are in a good trading position. At press time, Joby’s stock is down about 35 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, while Archer’s is down about 33 percent.

There’s so much going on, it’s no wonder that these companies are using their official themes to blast each other. The talent pool is small, so disputes over trade secrets and corporate espionage were somewhat inevitable. And because FAA certification is an absolute requirement for the air taxi service of the future, compliance was another line of attack.

But these cases also send a message to investors, regulators, and potential future passengers: Buckle up, because there’s trouble ahead.