Joby Aviation and Toyota Motor Corporation have launched the initial phase of a strategic manufacturing alliance aimed at accelerating commercial production of electric air taxis—an early step the companies say is designed to make “air mobility for all” a practical, everyday reality.

Announced June 30, 2026, the partnership formalizes a new joint venture that will combine Joby’s electric aviation development with Toyota’s production systems and operational expertise. The near-term focus: building the groundwork for commercial production while pushing improvements in productivity, quality, and cost—key factors as the industry moves from prototypes to scaled manufacturing.

What the joint venture is designed to do

According to the companies, the alliance will initially concentrate on:

• Establishing the foundation for commercial production capability
• Advancing manufacturing excellence with an emphasis on productivity, quality, and cost
• Supporting expansion of Joby’s production capacity as it works toward aircraft certification and prepares for anticipated demand

The announcement positions Toyota’s manufacturing playbook—known globally for lean production and continuous improvement—as a lever to help Joby move from development into repeatable, high-quality output at scale.

Why it matters: eVTOLs need scale, not just flight tests

Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have become one of the most closely watched bets in next-generation transportation, but the path to viable air taxi services depends on more than successful test flights. Certification timelines, supply chain readiness, and the ability to produce aircraft consistently (and affordably) are often what separates promising technology from commercial reality.

By forming a joint venture focused on manufacturing readiness, Joby and Toyota are signaling that the next competitive frontier is industrialization—how quickly and reliably eVTOL aircraft can be built to meet safety standards and market demand.

Related Links for Further reading

1. Joby Aviation (official): https://www.jobyaviation.com
2. Joby Investor Relations / News (official updates & filings): https://ir.jobyaviation.com
3. Toyota Newsroom (official): https://www.toyotanewsroom.com
4. Toyota Global (corporate overview): https://global.toyota/en
5. FAA Advanced Air Mobility / Air Taxis (context): https://www.faa.gov/air-taxis

What executives are saying

Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt emphasized the long-running relationship between the companies, calling the joint venture a reflection of shared confidence in the opportunity ahead.

“Toyota has been by Joby’s side for nearly a decade, providing invaluable guidance and support as we built the foundation for manufacturing our aircraft,” Bevirt said. “Together, we share a vision of making aerial mobility an everyday reality.”

Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio Toyoda framed air mobility as an extension of the company’s broader mission.

“Since our founding, we’ve been guided by the philosophy of providing mobility for all,” Toyoda said, adding that Toyota views air mobility as “a natural extension of that philosophy—from the ground into the sky.”

About the companies

Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) is a California-based transportation company developing an all-electric eVTOL air taxi. The company intends to operate its own air taxi service in cities worldwide and sell aircraft to other operators and partners.

Toyota (NYSE: TM) has operated in North America for nearly 70 years and says it is focused on sustainable, next-generation mobility through Toyota and Lexus brands. Toyota reports nearly 64,000 employees in North America, 14 manufacturing plants, and more than 1,800 dealerships. The company also noted that its North Carolina plant began assembling automotive batteries for electrified vehicles in 2025.

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What to watch for next

For readers tracking the air taxi sector, the next milestones will likely center on:

• Details on how the joint venture will be structured operationally
• Updates on Joby’s certification progress and production ramp timelines
• Signs of how manufacturing improvements translate into cost reductions and throughput
• Additional agreements or expanded collaboration as the alliance progresses

While the companies highlighted expected benefits, they also noted the usual forward-looking risks—such as regulatory certification timelines, market conditions, and the ability to finalize additional agreements.

Source: Toyota Motor North America / PRNewswire (June 30, 2026)

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Building Brighter Futures: Helping Young People Succeed in a Changing Economy

(Feature Impact) During a time when the economy is changing rapidly and shifting the landscape of work into uncertain territory, academic success is no longer enough to put young people on a stable path to the future. Once, a high school diploma was enough to land a well-paying job. Then a college degree became the gold standard. Now the roadmap has changed again, which means that smart students need to start taking steps in new directions.

According to Junior Achievement, three key concepts to add to modern teenagers’ knowledge arsenal include financial literacy, economic mobility and entrepreneurship.

Why Financial Literacy Matters

When young people are equipped with the knowledge they need to earn, manage, save and invest money, it supports their journey through every life milestone ahead, from education and homeownership to retirement and more. Financial literacy gives people the confidence to make smart decisions while dodging costly mistakes like getting into high-interest debt.

A recent Junior Achievement survey indicated that although 42% of Americans struggle with money management, 23% feel their income could be sufficient if they understood how to manage it more effectively. Giving students a strong foundation in financial literacy can set them up well to not only earn money but use it wisely to meet their future needs and accomplish their goals.

The Power of Economic Mobility

Economic mobility refers to the idea that each generation can expect to achieve better opportunities and more financial stability than the one before. Today’s youth are growing increasingly skeptical of this possibility, and for good reason: they see that even many college graduates are underemployed and struggling to find their feet.

There’s no denying the game has changed. However, upward economic mobility is still within reach for students who are willing to learn the new rules, especially if they have parents and educators supporting their journeys. With or without a college degree, students who engage with their communities, believe in their own potential and focus on building transferable personal and entrepreneurial skills can find themselves well-positioned to navigate a changing world.

How to Grow Entrepreneurial Skills

Topics like financial literacy and business acumen can be taught in a variety of ways both in and out of the classroom. Other key entrepreneurial skills – like leadership, confidence, work ethic, creativity and critical thinking – are more like muscles that get stronger when they’re trained. While academics are still important, hands-on opportunities and experiences are invaluable parts of the equation to prepare students for economic success.

Take programs like Future Bound by Junior Achievement, for example, which is an immersive annual event designed to empower high school students with essential skills and opportunities to innovate. Participants put their intelligence, creativity and ambition to the test during four team competitions where they can showcase and hone real-world business and economic skills. Winners receive national honors, awards, scholarships and prizes from event sponsors, including Pacific Life Foundation and Staples, among others. Plus, all attendees get the chance to network with industry leaders from around the country, participate in workshops and connect with other future-focused teens.

Whether you’re a student, parent, educator or volunteer, explore more resources to help young people succeed at JA.org.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

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SOURCE:

Junior Achievement

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Donovan McCarty, Michigan State University

Buying her first home on Detroit’s far east side in 2021 was the moment when a lifelong dream finally came within reach for Kim Page.

“I accomplished something that I always wanted to do,” said Page, who grew up in the city. “I always wanted to buy my own home since I was like 18. I never wanted to rent from anyone.”

Page said she had saved US$15,000 and used $3,800 in cash to buy the single-family brick house on Britain Street. The house, owned by a friend planning to move out of Detroit, was “damaged pretty bad,” Page recalls. But the house was hers to care for, and she was determined to fix what was broken.

For the next several years, Page poured her sweat and paychecks into the property. Working first as a welder at automotive supplier Fisher Dynamics, and later as a phlebotomist, she paid for a dumpster, windows, a door, ceiling repair and an awning above her front porch. Page invested $27,000 in needed repairs and, in 2022, happily moved in.

But in August 2023, a storm damaged her roof. By March 2024, mold had grown inside the property, which made Page struggle to breathe; she moved in with family. She returned to the home in April 2024 for an appointment with a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That’s when Page noticed the locks had been changed. Perplexed but undeterred, she broke down the back door to get inside and purchased new locks, which she installed.

Then on a hot, summer day in July 2024, Page came home to discover all her locks had been changed again.

Searching for answers, Page called the Wayne County Register of Deeds’ Mortgage and Deed Fraud Unit. The staff confirmed she was a victim of deed fraud – a crime where scammers forge signatures to record a phony transfer of property ownership. Once criminals hijack the title, they can sell the property, rent it out or drain its equity with mortgages, potentially leaving the rightful owner to face the legal and financial fallout.

“I just was in shock,” Page said. “I can’t believe somebody really did this to me.”

A nationwide problem that’s hard to nail down

Page reached out to me for help in March 2025. I’m a housing attorney, assistant professor at Michigan State University College of Law and director of the Housing Justice Clinic. I have represented dozens of victims of deed fraud.

I have also studied how property recording systems respond – or, more accurately, fail to respond – to fraud. My work examines how procedural gaps in title systems disproportionately harm elderly, low-income and minority homeowners.

Nationwide, deed fraud – also called quit claim deed fraud or home title theft – is a growing problem, including in New York, Boston, Miami and Philadelphia.

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Exactly how big a problem it is, is hard to know. The FBI does not track deed fraud specifically, instead grouping it into a larger category of real estate crimes.

From 2019 through 2023, 58,141 victims in the U.S. reported $1.3 billion in losses relating to real estate crime, the FBI says. However, that number is likely undercounted because many people don’t know where to report it, are embarrassed they were victims or don’t know yet they have been targeted.

In Detroit, deed fraud may be particularly prevalent because so many housing deals are made in cash and many properties owe back taxes. The Wayne County Mortgage and Deed Fraud Unit has tracked more than 13,000 inquiries regarding deed fraud and has opened over 2,300 cases throughout Wayne County since 2005.

Without oversight, the crime often goes undetected

Committing deed fraud is remarkably simple.

A deed is the legal document that transfers ownership of a home or other real property from one person to another. When a home is bought or sold, a deed is legally drawn up to reflect the transfer of ownership. That deed is then recorded with a county register of deeds, providing public notice of who legally owns the property.

A fraudster can forge the signature of the real owner – sometimes someone who is deceased. They can file a deed that appears valid on its face but isn’t.

They then record that false deed with a county register of deeds, the local government office that keeps public land records and other documents showing ownership, claiming title to property they do not actually own.

Fraudsters often target vulnerable people and properties, including elderly owners, families dealing with inherited homes, and houses that appear vacant or neglected, such as those behind on property taxes.

The incentive is clear: Once a fraudster appears to hold title, they can try to sell the property to an investor or an unsuspecting buyer looking for stable housing. I have seen fraudsters secure as much as $50,000 from one deal when they obtained a mortgage based on a fraudulent deed. One notable case of fraud targeted Elvis Presley’s former estate, Graceland.

In Michigan and most other states, recording offices do not have authority to substantively review a deed to determine whether it is fraudulent. If the document complies with technical formatting requirements, such as margin and font size, it must be recorded. Once stamped and indexed, the deed appears legitimate and can easily trick desperate buyers, investors, financial institutions and even police officers, lawyers and judges.

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In other words, the recording process is largely administrative, not investigative. The government office accepts and files the document without first verifying that the person signing it actually had the legal right to transfer the property.

That means a fraudulent deed can enter the public record, look valid to the outside world and remain undiscovered for months or even years.

Detroit is vulnerable

The housing market helps explain why Detroiters are more vulnerable to deed fraud.

Homes in Black neighborhoods nationwide are systematically undervalued compared with similar homes in white neighborhoods. Black borrowers are also more likely to be denied conventional mortgage loans. Detroit is about 73% Black, with a median household income of roughly $39,000 and a poverty rate exceeding 30%.

In a market where access to traditional financing is uneven and home prices are relatively low, cash sales accounted for 4 in 10 sales in February 2024.

Lenders, brokers and title companies act as informal gatekeepers when people purchase a home using a mortgage. In cash sales, those actors are absent, and there are fewer opportunities to detect irregularities in the documented history showing how title passed from one owner to the next over time.

Illegal tax practices led to thousands of foreclosed homes

Property tax distress attracts fraudsters. Fraudsters seem to rely on publicly available tax foreclosure lists to identify properties that appear abandoned. They then pay the past-due taxes to remove the property from foreclosure and attempt to sell or mortgage the property using their fraudulent deed.

The fraudsters may also assume that the owner lacks the resources to wage a prolonged legal fight to recover title if they do uncover their scheme. In many cases, that assumption proves correct.

Michigan’s Constitution caps assessments at 50% of market value, but researchers have found that from 2009 to 2015, a majority of Detroit homes were assessed above that limit. Once those inflated bills went unpaid, interest, penalties and fees accumulated, often ending in tax foreclosure.

More than 100,000 Detroit residents lost homes in that crisis, and homeowners were overtaxed by at least $600 million between 2010 and 2016.

In a city already destabilized by unlawful tax foreclosure, fraudsters found opportunity in homes burdened by vacancy and broken chains of ownership.

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The burdens that deed fraud victims face

My first encounter with deed fraud came in July 2023. I received a request for legal assistance from a man who said he had been evicted from a home he claimed to own. Honestly, I didn’t believe him.

But when I pulled the court records and deeds, I learned he was right.

A fraudulent deed had been filed on his property, stripping him of title. The fraudsters then filed an eviction case against him.

The owner had no phone and no internet access to attend the virtual hearings. The court entered a judgment to evict him. A bailiff came, broke down his door and threw his belongings into a dumpster.

It took six months and two separate court cases before he was finally able to return to his home. He never recovered his belongings – and we never found the fraudster.

There are many other hardships for a legitimate owner. A fraudulent deed can prevent homeowners from selling their property, refinancing or accessing financial assistance programs.

To clear title, owners must file a quiet title lawsuit – a court action used to resolve disputes over who legally owns a property.

But quiet title cases are complex legal proceedings.

They require multiple filings, hearings and strict compliance with procedural rules. Even when fraud is obvious – for example, when a deed was signed by someone who was already deceased – courts generally require formal litigation to remove the cloud from the title.

Likewise, the legal process of notifying the defendant can be especially burdensome. Fraudsters often use fictitious names and addresses, making them difficult or impossible to locate. Even uncontested cases typically take months. If a defendant appears and disputes ownership, litigation can stretch for years.

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Filing fees, service costs and other litigation expenses accumulate quickly. Hiring an attorney can cost several thousand dollars, and some victims have reported spending tens of thousands clearing title to their homes.

As for Kim Page, her case is still ongoing. After being locked out of her home, she had to move in with relatives for over a year, putting a strain on their relationship. She was eventually able to return to her home, but the legal dispute over ownership has not been resolved.

On top of that, she is facing a counter-lawsuit from the company that filed the fraudulent deed, requesting $50,000 for repairs the company made to the home while Page was locked out, along with property taxes and utility bills that the company says it paid to the county and utility companies on her behalf. The county opened an investigation, but it remains unresolved. As a result, she still has no idea who orchestrated the scheme.

While there are free legal services organizations to help, they have limited capacity, and income thresholds exclude some homeowners who still cannot afford private counsel.

Legal reforms likely won’t resolve systemic issues

Across the country, state legislatures have begun responding. Twenty-one have enacted deed fraud legislation, and 15 more have proposed it.

Another common intervention is fraud alert systems, which notify owners when any documents that impact the title of their property are recorded.

Other reforms increase notarial requirements or enhance criminal penalties.

These measures may deter some misconduct, but they do little to reduce the burden on victims once a fraudulent deed has been recorded.

In my assessment, meaningful reforms focus on empowering registers of deeds to substantively review suspicious documents before recording them; simplifying and expediting quiet title proceedings; and expanding civil remedies so victims can recover the costs associated with clearing their title.

Some jurisdictions like Texas and Florida have adopted streamlined procedures that allow victims to initiate quiet title actions using standardized forms with reduced fees. Others permit recorders, prosecutors or judges to act when fraud has already been established.

In Michigan, I am working with lawmakers and stakeholders to develop comprehensive legislation addressing these issues. Bills are expected to be introduced later this year.

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At the same time, my clinic has begun exploring how technology can help identify fraudulent deeds already in the record. We are working with computer scientists to evaluate whether artificial intelligence tools could flag suspicious filings and potentially prevent fraudulent documents from being accepted in the future.

No property system can eliminate fraud entirely. Preventive and punitive measures may limit fraud, but they cannot eliminate the incentive to commit it. For fraudsters, the payoff can be substantial.

Conversations about the issue often begin and end with the mechanics of the crime or the procedural burdens victims face afterward. Far less attention is paid to the housing market conditions that make some communities especially vulnerable in the first place.

Page, now 42 and working as a transporter for Sinai-Grace Hospital, has been coping with the stress of legal proceedings for the past two years and living with a heart condition so serious that she got a defibrillator.

The longtime Detroiter is fed up – with the lack of police help to find the fraudster, as well as the court system. All she wants is to be the rightful owner of the home.

“Give me my house back,” Page said.

Detroit editor Eleanore Catolico contributed reporting.

Donovan McCarty, Director, Housing Justice Clinic at Michigan State University College of Law, Michigan State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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