Electric air taxis are stuck in the courtroom
Electric air taxis are stuck in the courtroom
电动空中出租车陷入法庭泥潭
Legal wrangling between leading eVTOL companies Joby, Archer, and Vertical threatens the future of the industry. 领先的电动垂直起降（eVTOL）飞行器公司 Joby、Archer 和 Vertical 之间的法律纠纷，正威胁着整个行业的未来。
How it started
缘起
Last year, two of the leading air taxi companies in the US, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, sued each other, with Joby accusing Archer of corporate espionage and Archer claiming that Joby was concealing its ties to China. Then, in February of this year, Archer filed a patent infringement suit against a different air taxi rival, Vertical Aerospace, accusing it of copying its “Midnight” design for its own “Valo” aircraft. 去年，美国两家领先的空中出租车公司 Joby Aviation 和 Archer Aviation 互相起诉。Joby 指控 Archer 从事企业间谍活动，而 Archer 则声称 Joby 隐瞒了其与中国的关联。随后，在今年 2 月，Archer 又对另一家竞争对手 Vertical Aerospace 提起专利侵权诉讼，指控其抄袭了“Midnight”机型的设计，用于自家的“Valo”飞行器。
These tiffs are taking place less than two years after Archer supposedly settled its dispute with Boeing-backed Wisk Aero over the alleged theft of trade secrets — only to see the case reopened when Wisk asked the court for help enforcing the terms of the settlement. 这些争端发生时，距离 Archer 与波音支持的 Wisk Aero 就涉嫌窃取商业机密一案达成和解还不到两年——然而，当 Wisk 请求法院协助执行和解条款时，该案又被重新开启。
These heated courtroom battles are unfolding at a precarious time for the air taxi industry, right as it’s trying to position its technology as an important new mode of urban mobility with the ability to whisk passengers across cities without any of the noise or carbon pollution of a traditional helicopter. 这些激烈的法庭博弈正值空中出租车行业发展的关键时刻。该行业正试图将自身技术定位为一种重要的城市交通新模式，旨在让乘客在城市间穿梭，同时避免传统直升机带来的噪音和碳污染。
Despite these promises, the industry is experiencing a lot of ups and downs. Air taxi stocks have lost most of their value over the last several years as certification deadlines get pushed further and further out. Budgets are dwindling as timelines are getting longer. And investors, already wary about the industry’s ability to win regulatory approval, are growing increasingly nervous about the enormous costs required by these lawsuits. 尽管前景广阔，但该行业正经历着巨大的起伏。随着适航认证期限一再推迟，空中出租车公司的股票在过去几年里损失了大部分价值。随着时间表的拉长，预算也在不断缩减。投资者本就对该行业能否获得监管批准持怀疑态度，如今又对这些诉讼带来的巨额成本感到愈发焦虑。
As companies race to dominate a brand-new, potentially multibillion-dollar aviation industry, these disputes over intellectual property, competition, and talent are triggering an aggressive wave of litigation that could make it even more difficult for the electric air taxi industry to inevitably get off the ground. 随着各家公司竞相争夺这个全新的、潜在价值数十亿美元的航空市场，围绕知识产权、竞争和人才的纠纷引发了一波激烈的诉讼浪潮，这可能会使电动空中出租车行业更难实现其必然的起飞。
How it’s going
现状
Located only an hour from each other across the San Francisco Bay Area, Joby and Archer have become bitter rivals in the race to become the Uber of the sky. In the past year, they’ve become entangled in a series of suits and countersuits that take jabs at their products and progress. Joby 和 Archer 总部相距仅一小时车程，位于旧金山湾区。在争夺“空中 Uber”地位的竞赛中，它们已成为死对头。在过去的一年里，它们陷入了一系列互相起诉的官司中，针对彼此的产品和进展展开攻击。
In a suit 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 former employee stole technical information and stakeholder communications in order to provide them to his new employer. “Archer brazenly used that stolen information,” Joby claims in its complaint. 在 2025 年 11 月提起的一项诉讼中，Joby 指控 Archer 从事企业间谍活动，并引用了一名跳槽至 Archer 的前 Joby 员工为例。Joby 指控该员工窃取了技术信息和利益相关者通讯记录，并提供给新雇主。Joby 在诉状中声称：“Archer 肆无忌惮地使用了这些被窃取的信息。”
In March of this year, Archer clapped back, accusing Joby of defrauding the US government by misclassifying components imported from China. The plan, Archer claimed, included classifying China aircraft parts as consumer goods such as “hair clips” and “socks.” The countersuit appears to have paid off; a month later, the International Trade Commission opened an investigation into Joby’s ties to China, examining whether the company violated tariff or patent law. The ongoing investigation could delay Joby’s plans to launch an air taxi service by 2028. 今年 3 月，Archer 进行了反击，指控 Joby 通过错误分类从中国进口的零部件来欺诈美国政府。Archer 声称，该计划包括将中国的飞机零部件归类为“发夹”和“袜子”等消费品。这一反诉似乎奏效了；一个月后，美国国际贸易委员会（ITC）对 Joby 与中国的关联展开调查，审查该公司是否违反了关税或专利法。这项正在进行的调查可能会推迟 Joby 在 2028 年推出空中出租车服务的计划。
But Joby isn’t the only rival in Archer’s crosshairs. In February, Archer filed a lawsuit against UK-based Vertical Aerospace, accusing it of ripping off 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. 但 Joby 并不是 Archer 瞄准的唯一竞争对手。2 月份，Archer 对总部位于英国的 Vertical Aerospace 提起诉讼，指控其剽窃了 eVTOL 设计。Archer 的“Midnight”和 Vertical 的“Valo”均为四座飞行器，配备电动机和倾转旋翼，专为垂直起降设计。两者的巡航速度均为每小时 150 英里，最大航程均为 100 英里。
“It’s obvious that Vertical’s Valo aircraft mimics many of Midnight’s most distinctive design features,” Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief strategy and legal officer, said in a statement to The Verge. Vertical Aerospace spokesperson Justin Bates said that Archer’s claims were “without merit” and a “distraction” from the company’s challenges in the market. Archer 首席战略与法律官 Eric Lentell 在给 The Verge 的声明中表示：“Vertical 的 Valo 飞行器显然模仿了 Midnight 许多最独特的特征。”Vertical Aerospace 发言人 Justin Bates 则称，Archer 的指控“毫无根据”，只是为了“转移注意力”，掩盖其自身在市场上面临的挑战。
What happens next
未来展望
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 claim they are close. 目前还没有任何一家空中出租车公司完全通过美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）要求的严格型号认证，以进行商业载客飞行。但 Joby 和 Archer 都声称他们已接近目标。
Joby is widely considered to be the front-runner, having progressed through all four stages of the type certification process. The company produces around one aircraft a month and is currently working on a production version that will undergo the FAA’s certification process. In April, Joby demonstrated one of its aircraft flying from JFK Airport to Lower Manhattan as a preview of future air taxi routes. The company plans on launching its first passenger service in Dubai, where certification requirements are less strict than in the US, later this year. Joby 被广泛认为是领跑者，已完成了型号认证过程的全部四个阶段。该公司每月生产约一架飞行器，目前正在研发将接受 FAA 认证流程的量产版本。4 月份，Joby 展示了其飞行器从肯尼迪国际机场（JFK）飞往曼哈顿下城的航程，作为未来空中出租车航线的预演。该公司计划于今年晚些时候在迪拜推出首项客运服务，那里的认证要求比美国宽松。
Archer, meanwhile, is still working on a pre-production model and has progressed through three of the four type certification stages. The company has said it will be ready for passengers in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 与此同时，Archer 仍在研发预生产模型，并已完成了四个型号认证阶段中的三个。该公司表示，他们将赶在 2028 年洛杉矶夏季奥运会前做好载客准备。
But investors have been less than impressed with the companies’ claims of being on the cusp of commercial viability. At the time of publication, Joby’s stock has shed almost 35 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, while Archer’s stock has plummeted nearly 33 percent. 然而，投资者对这些公司声称“即将实现商业化”的说法并不买账。截至本文发布时，Joby 的股价自年初以来已下跌了近 35%，而 Archer 的股价则暴跌了近 33%。
There’s so much at stake, it’s no surprise these companies are using their legal teams to blast each other out of the sky. The talent pool is small, so disputes over trade secrets and corporate espionage were in some ways inevitable. And because FAA certification is an absolute necessity for a future air taxi service, regulatory compliance became another line of attack. 由于利益攸关，这些公司动用法律团队互相“击落”也就不足为奇了。人才库规模有限，因此关于商业机密和企业间谍活动的纠纷在某种程度上是不可避免的。而且，由于 FAA 认证是未来空中出租车服务的必要条件，合规性也成了攻击的另一个切入点。
But these lawsuits are also sending a message to investors, to regulators… 但这些诉讼同时也向投资者和监管机构传递了一个信号……