How close to air taxis are we?
Save the Date
Join us for CoMotion LA ‘26 this November 18-19: Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next — featuring the OMF Summit Track.
It wasn’t too long ago that there were people who didn’t think robotaxis would ever become a reality. In a recent look back at CoMotion’s ten years of existence, CEO John Rossant marvels at how much has changed — yet notes that some things are not changing fast enough.
What can we expect to happen in the next 10 years? For instance, just how close are we to widespread deployment of electric air taxis? In an insightful column this week, Israeli aviation expert Esti Peshin says air taxis are coming but describes the myriad obstacles that stand in the way of them becoming a staple of urban living.
Meanwhile, sales of electric passenger vehicles in the U.S. still haven’t recovered from the elimination of the EV tax credit, but sky-high diesel prices are putting pressure on the freight industry to consider Tesla’s new electric big rigs.
What you need to know
What has worked & what hasn’t in mobility: A decade after CoMotion’s founding, CoMotion Founder and CEO John Rossant talks with Cities Today about where progress has exceeded his expectations and where it’s fallen short. AI and autonomous technology have advanced far more rapidly than initially expected, but regulators are still struggling to keep up. “The gap between what technology makes possible and what residents actually experience in their daily commute is still too wide.
Amazon keeps blocking the bus lanes: Urbanists and unions have found common cause in New York City, where a new labor-backed database tracks the thousands of traffic violations Amazon delivery drivers have racked up in recent years. Between 2019-24, Amazon drivers were cited 3,600 times for blocking access to bus stops, bus lanes or bike lanes and 2,700 times for obstructing curb access.
Meet our latest Speakers!
We’re excited to share some of the visionaries and industry experts taking the stage at CoMotion LA ‘26, November 18-19, featuring the OMF Summit Track.
This year’s edition brings together mayors, policymakers, VC investors, founders, and CEOs — along with international delegations, companies, and startups from across North America, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Latest confirmed speakers include:
- Mayor James T. Butts, City of Inglewood
- Eric Garcetti, Ambassador, C40 Cities; Former Mayor, City of LA
- Lee White, Deputy Administrator, NHTSA
- Ben Kemp, Head of Event & Venue Operations, Uber
- Andrés Colman, Chief Operations Officer, Utah Transit Authority
- Monica DiLullo, Senior Manager, Government Relations, Lime
- Natalie Bettger, Senior Program Manager, NCTCOG
- Vanessa Alexandra Velasco Bernal, Secretary of Habitat, City of Bogotá
Make the most out of the CoMotion LA ‘26 and upgrade to a Mobility Leader Pass to get the full 3-day experience and gain exclusive access to CoMotion NXT in Long Beach on Nov. 17, including VIP receptions, lounges, and networking experience, and more.
Tesla gets sued in Texas: The family of a young man killed in May after his Tesla ran off the road and into a public pool has sued the automaker, alleging that the Model 3 “suddenly and unexpectedly accelerated.” This comes just a few months after Tesla prevailed over similar allegations of unintended acceleration in another fatal crash in Texas.
…and Austin gets sued over Tesla: Austin environmental group Save Our Springs has filed suit against the city of Austin, demanding it release water usage records linked to a Tesla data center. The company has insisted the records are trade secrets that would harm its competitive position. What would have been a standard position for a corporation to take until recently could become a major public relations headache due to rising backlash to data centers. The Tesla brand has already tanked with liberals, but contempt for data centers has become one of the few things shared by both sides of America’s polarized political culture.
What we’re reading
Parsing hype from reality with eVTOLs: Writing for the Jerusalem Post, aviation industry veteran Esti Peshin says eVTOLs will eventually be a game-changing mobility option. However, she says the path to widely available commercial flights is likely longer than the industry’s own projected timelines. She describes the many obstacles that need to be cleared in terms of battery technology, regulatory approval, infrastructure and public acceptance.
