Written edition
Joby ordered to pay $116.9M days before its air-taxi launch
A quiet news day still moved several frontiers at once: AI labs keep racing to open-source the frontier even as courts and regulators reshape who gets to build what, and physical infrastructure — space stations, flying taxis, retinal implants — is proving durable enough to survive legal and market shocks.
Joby ordered to pay $116.9M in trade secrets case
A U.S. jury found that Joby Aviation, which is building electric air taxis meant to ferry passengers around cities, misused another company's trade secrets and ordered it to pay $116.9 million. The size of the verdict matters because Joby hasn't launched commercial service yet, so this lands as a cash and reputational hit right as the company nears its most important milestone. It's a reminder that the race to commercialize flying taxis isn't just about engineering and certification, it's also about who owns the underlying ideas, and courtrooms can move faster than regulators or the market in deciding that.
