Joby Taps NVIDIA for Superpilot, Starts Manufacturing eVTOL Propeller Blades

November 5, 2025

Joby Aviation, the California-based startup, recently announced major program milestones toward its goal of developing a new electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Joby established a new collaborative partnership with NVIDIA to develop its autopilot technology, and has also begun manufacturing propeller blades at its facility in Dayton, Ohio.

Joby Aviation is working with NVIDIA on the development of the “Superpilot” navigation system for its eVTOL aircraft. (Image: Joby Aviation)

NVIDIA Superpilot Partnership

The partnership with NVIDIA was established by NVIDIA’s selection of Joby as the only aviation launch partner for the new NVIDIA IGX Thor platform. Powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, the industrial-grade platform is designed to power the next generation of physical artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This unique collaboration will advance development of Joby’s autonomous flight technology Superpilot™ across military and civil platforms.

“The autonomous systems under development at Joby are poised to complement human intelligence by providing speed, precision, and stamina beyond what a person alone is capable of,” said Gregor Veble Mikić, Flight Research Lead at Joby. “To achieve this, an aircraft needs a powerful onboard computer that can interpret extraordinary amounts of information to make decisions in real-time. Combining NVIDIA’s compute power with our world-class aircraft design, certification and rigorous flight testing capabilities, we’re enabling a new era of safety-first autonomy in aviation.”

Joby is developing Superpilot™ to interact with the world through a continuum of autonomous functions. NVIDIA's support for industry recognized functional safety standards on the IGX Thor platform allows Joby to pursue certifiable autonomy for near-term defense and long-term civil applications as the Federal Aviation Administration advances the capabilities of national airspace.

Integrating this level of advanced compute can transform operational safety and mission capability, enabling real-time, on-board capabilities such as:

Autonomous Mission Management: Enables the aircraft to determine, request and follow optimal flight paths, adapt to changes in weather, air traffic control instructions, or unexpected events, with intuitive human-machine teaming to ensure mission success.
Radar and Perception Processing: Onboard compute processes high-rate data from Radar, LiDAR and Vision sensors to achieve rich environmental awareness, precise object perception and localization to safely navigate the airspace in all conditions.
Sensor Fusion: Integrated high-performance processing combines data from a diverse range of sensors to deliver reliable and accurate aircraft state estimation and situational awareness in the most challenging environments.

It also establishes a foundation to develop features that enhance operational insight, reliability and performance:

Predictive System Health Monitoring: The aircraft will be capable of refining models of its own function and reliability, predicting when system components might need attention and alerting crew members before it becomes a problem.
“Digital Twin” Modeling: With powerful and reliable compute capabilities, an aircraft can carry a “digital twin” model of itself, and the world, that gathers data from every flight to refine its fidelity. This information can then be integrated into mission control systems to optimize performance and efficiency.

“Autonomous cars have showcased the ability to interpret large volumes of data to make split-second decisions,” said Mikić. “For an aircraft, the compute power needed for autonomy is similarly high, but also needs to meet even higher levels of design rigor to achieve certification for operation in controlled airspace. In aviation, every calculation must be perfect, and every decision infallible.”

Joby Aviation has started manufacturing propeller blades at its Dayton, Ohio facility. (Image: Joby Aviation)

Propeller Blade Manufacturing

Joby has begun manufacturing propeller blades at its Dayton, Ohio facility. This milestone expands in-house manufacturing of a critical conforming component and builds on the work already underway in Ohio, including testing, underscoring Dayton’s historic role in aircraft production ahead of commercial launch.

“Dayton gives us the resources, talent, and speed to scale one of the most technically demanding parts of our aircraft,” said Eric Allison, Chief Product Officer at Joby. “Joby's propeller blades are a key part of what makes our aircraft special – central to its low acoustic profile and the result of a decade of complex engineering.”

Designed for quiet flight and built with extreme precision, the propeller blades require complex carbon manufacturing processes and a highly skilled workforce, both available in Dayton. With five blades per propeller and 30 per aircraft, production could reach up to 15,000 blades a year as part of Joby’s plan to scale in Ohio. Conforming blades – those meeting all requirements for FAA inspection and certification – are expected to be completed next month, with installation on flight test aircraft targeted for next year.

Over time, Joby’s Dayton footprint is expected to be able to support production of up to 500 aircraft a year, making this facility a strategic site for the mass production of its aircraft components.

Joby selected Dayton for its strong heritage of aerospace and advanced manufacturing, highly skilled local workforce, and close proximity to critical suppliers. With nearly every component needed for blade production available within a 30-minute radius of the site, the region provides a strong foundation for efficient, high-quality manufacturing at scale.

This work will support Joby’s type and production certification programs and provide capacity to expand operations in the years ahead. Having built and refined its manufacturing processes in California with Toyota, Joby is now applying those learnings to scale production in Ohio. Dayton is expected to become the Company’s long-term hub for blade production, backed by the space, resources, and talent needed to meet growing demand. The expansion reinforces Joby’s integrated manufacturing strategy, linking operations in California and Ohio to prepare for commercial service at scale.

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