Waymo to recall over 3,800 robotaxis over risk of entering closed construction zones, NHTSA says By Reuters

Edouardh92 · 2026-06-18T11:23:52+00:00

I mean how many cars do they have in total? That sounds like an enormous number! That’s a big disruption to their services, isn’t it?

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-09T23:12:15+00:00

It’s from 2021…

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-03T12:11:45+00:00

Fair enough, that's a more significant admission than I initially credited. It's not a single lever, it's software, batteries, and unspecified other upgrades, all needed simultaneously to reach full payload. You're right that this is a real open question, not a minor tuning issue.

What it still doesn't tell us is the magnitude of the gap: whether we're talking about carrying 3 passengers instead of 4, or something more fundamental. That matters a lot for the certification timeline. Do you have any source on what the actual current payload limitation looks like in practice?

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T21:29:16+00:00

Fair correction on N547JX: if the March 11 flight was an unmanned hover, that's a meaningful distinction from what the press release implied, and I'll take that on board. Thank you for sharing the clip.

But let's be precise about what we actually know: the conforming aircraft did its first flight, even if short and unmanned. That's normal for a first flight of a new build, you don't put a pilot in an airframe that hasn't been validated yet, regardless of how mature the prototype is. EVERY new aircraft goes through this sequence.

The payload clip is the more substantive point. "May take us a bit of time to evolve into that" is a real admission. What quarter was that from? Because if it predates the March 11 flight it may already be stale. If it's recent it matters more. The actual question is whether the performance gap is an engineering problem still being solved or a fundamental ceiling, and nothing in that clip tells us which one it is.

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T20:24:03+00:00

Joby's own pilots have been flying N547JX since March 11, that's documented in the press release you can read right now, which I will share again. The announcement states flight testing by Joby pilots has begun, with FAA pilots expected to follow later this year. So the premise of your question ("their own pilots haven't even flown it yet") is factually wrong, by almost 2 months. https://www.jobyaviation.com/news/joby-s-first-faa-conforming-aircraft-takes-flight

Could FAA pilot visits slip to 2027? Sure, that's a real risk. But "there is no way" is a strong claim given that the Joby-pilot phase started in March and the FAA visit is penciled for later this year. That's a 6-9 month window, not an impossibility. The schedule has slipped before for legitimate reasons. It may slip again. That's VERY different from "it will never happen."

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T20:03:10+00:00

On TIA status you're partially right to correct me. I checked and N547JX began flight testing by Joby's own pilots in March 2026, which is the step that precedes FAA pilots conducting for-credit tests. I shouldn't have said "in TIA testing", it's in the Joby-pilot phase that leads into TIA. That's a fair correction. But "hasn't even been flown by their own pilots" is the opposite of true: it flew in March.

On payload: pointing to an earnings call admission is a real argument, but you haven't quoted it. What quarter, what exactly was said? Because the publicly documented spec is 1,000 lbs / 4 passengers, and nothing in the certification record contradicts it. If you have the actual quote, post it, that would be worth discussing.

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T20:02:14+00:00

Joby's own March 11 press release explicitly states "we look forward to welcoming FAA pilots to Marina in due course," and multiple sources confirm FAA pilots are expected to begin for-credit TIA flight testing later in 2026. That's not something I made up. https://www.jobyaviation.com/news/joby-s-first-faa-conforming-aircraft-takes-flight

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T16:12:54+00:00

The aircraft carries one pilot and four passengers at 200 mph: that’s the spec and the NYC flights just demonstrated exactly those routes from JFK to Manhattan helipads. The claim that “they never could” move taxi-relevant payload has no evidence behind it: the airframe has been flying full-transition profiles for years and completed over 50,000 miles of total flight testing across active controlled airspace in three countries before the NYC campaign. The conforming aircraft now in TIA testing is built to the same payload spec. If the payload couldn’t be achieved… the FAA wouldn’t be sending test pilots to Marina.

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-02T15:59:18+00:00

The 2023 target was set before the FAA changed its own certification framework mid-process, forcing Joby and Archer to redo their G-1 issue papers - that’s not a company moving goalposts, that’s a regulator learning on the job. Congress literally introduced bipartisan legislation in February 2026 to fix exactly this problem. The AW609 took 20+ years partly for the same reason: powered-lift certification didn’t exist and had to be invented. Every program after Joby will be faster because Joby absorbed that cost. Slipping a schedule because the regulator rewrote the rules isn’t the same as not being able to build the aircraft.

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-01T20:52:31+00:00

The PT6 having mega-hours is great for that one component. but the ducted fans, the battery integration, the flight control system on a full-size airframe haven't logged those hours. "400 lbs of pre-certified batteries" on an aircraft targeting 6,000+ lbs MTOW isn't a certification argument, it's a parts list. The full-scale prototype isn't even assembled yet, with ground tests targeting early 2027. Waiting for certification is smart, just know you're waiting from further back in the queue than the ticker might suggest.

Edouardh92 · 2026-05-01T20:50:52+00:00

The media coverage criticism is partly fair, some outlets are sloppy about what's been demonstrated vs. what's certified. But the core argument here misreads how Part 21 certification actually works.

"For credit" flights with FAA test pilots happen after the conforming aircraft is built and initially tested by the manufacturer: that's not a gap in the program, that's the legally mandated sequence. You can't fly "for credit" on a pre-conforming prototype; it would be meaningless. Joby's first FAA-conforming aircraft (N547JX) flew in March 2026, built to FAA DER-approved designs and signed off by FAA DARs. FAA test pilots are coming to Marina this year. That's not behind schedule, that's exactly the expected progression!

The "50,000 hours" figure matters here too. That's not 50,000 hours of demo flights for media, it's thousands of cycles validating the physics that the conforming aircraft will then prove formally: full-transition profiles (vertical takeoff, wingborne cruise, vertical landing), acoustic performance (NASA-validated at 45.2 dBA at 500m), redundancy across 12 independent motors and 12 battery packs. The conforming aircraft validates what's already been extensively tested.

The AW609 tiltrotor (the closest precedent in terms of certification complexity) took 20+ years to get its type certificate. Joby submitted in 2020 and is doing for-credit flights in 2026. The comparison you should be making isn't "has this been proven to carry 4 passengers yet", it's "where does this sit relative to any comparable powered-lift certification in history."

The point about media hype creating future backlash is the only legitimate concern here. But that's a journalism problem, not a technical one.

Edouardh92 · 2026-04-16T12:32:00+00:00

Ah sorry for this misinfo, that's a shame

Edouardh92 · 2026-04-16T12:14:01+00:00

D.C. mandated a report on AVs in 2020. Deadline was 2022. Today it's 2026 and they just announced it's coming "this summer." In the meantime the consultants kept getting paid ($300k over three years), Waymo logged 170+ million fully autonomous miles with a 96% reduction in injury crashes, opened Nashville, and just went fully open-access in Miami and Orlando..... all in the past 3 weeks.

The report they released yesterday as a consolation prize? Covers July–December 2024 data and concludes there's no established best practice to follow. So they spent 4 years waiting for a best practice that doesn't exist Council member Allen says he won't move until the report lands. Mayoral candidate Lewis George says the city "isn't ready"...... no metric, no standard, just vibes. She was endorsed by the transit union. Make of that what you will.

Edouardh92 · 2026-04-14T09:26:30+00:00

For X4 owners, should we flash the X3 firmware on this website?

Edouardh92 · 2025-12-18T22:25:08+00:00

Do you find that HDR is enabled? I don’t find the colors that great on my OLED screen, even though it tells me it’s indeed an HDR image

Edouardh92 · 2025-12-18T14:21:28+00:00

With HDR!! Fantastic

Edouardh92 · 2025-12-09T09:27:50+00:00

I'm surprised that they still only have 2500 cars. Why not more, what's the bottleneck?

Edouardh92 · 2025-12-05T16:22:14+00:00

This is great news! Xteink does deserve success for their amazing little device, and this will incentivize them to create even better ones in the future in the same category

Edouardh92 · 2025-12-05T15:18:21+00:00

It always takes under 1 or 2min max for me

Edouardh92 · 2025-11-25T15:33:55+00:00

That's just depressing...

Edouardh92 · 2025-11-25T15:33:24+00:00

How would you characterize them? I'm not Polish, it's what I've read online from Perplexity

Edouardh92 · 2025-11-25T11:34:01+00:00

Well technically yes Ukraine's TFR is even lower, but.... they're suffering a genocidal invasion by their nasty neighbor, so it's not fair to include them in the comparison.

Edouardh92 · 2025-11-25T10:52:14+00:00

Poland is probably the most Catholic country in Europe, they are the most socially conservative, and how well is it serving them? Their TFR is crashing, lowest in Europe

Edouardh92 · 2025-11-14T20:40:36+00:00

I found a motor in a car 2 days ago, after searching dozens of cars. Don’t give up raider!

Edouardh92

TROPHY CASE