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last mo.

Joby Says Its Autonomy Stack Piloted a Cessna From Coast to Coast

The weeklong mission used Joby’s J208 autonomy software with remote satellite monitoring and an FAA experimental clearance to demonstrate logistics and military use cases.

Joby Aviation
Key points in the autonomous flight across the U.S. by Joby Aviation’s autonomous J208 aircraft, clockwise from upper left: departing the Pacific coast near Concord, flying over the San Francisco skyline, navigating high-altitude mountain terrain across the West, and completing a low pass past Bodie Island Lighthouse in North Carolina’s Outer Banks near Kitty Hawk.

Overview

  • Joby announced that a retrofitted Cessna 208B completed a multi‑leg autonomous journey across the continental U.S., flying without any recorded manual control inputs during a trip that began Sept. 7 and ended Sept. 14.
  • The company installed its J208 autonomy stack plus radar, cameras and lidar on the production turboprop to avoid long eVTOL certification delays and prove retrofit autonomy on a certified airframe.
  • Ground teams at Joby’s Autonomy Headquarters and staff at Shaw Air Force Base remotely supervised the flight via satellite telemetry while a qualified safety pilot was on board as required by FAA experimental rules but made no control inputs.
  • Joby used planned stops in Phoenix, Fort Worth and Shaw AFB to test real‑world tasks such as integrating with busy general aviation traffic, communicating with air‑traffic control and rerouting around severe weather in real time.
  • Company leaders said the demonstration points to roles in medical deliveries, disaster response and military logistics, while wider commercial use still depends on further testing, FAA certification and additional funding.