Joby Aviation, Inc.

Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call

5/7/2024

spk06: commercial launch in the US, deployment with the DOD, and launch in Dubai, where we're working with the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority to leverage the documentation and testing we're doing for the FAA. Having our finalized airworthiness criteria is a really fundamental step. As we said before, it does mean that both we and the FAA have additional paperwork to do as we work through refinements to our means of compliance and certification plans. We believe we're on track to close all these by next quarter and expect our progress in stage four to accelerate in the back half of this year. While we complete that work, this quarter we continue to progress at pace on stage four, building on the learnings from our Pathfinder testing and test plan submittals at the end of last year. We submitted to the FAA equipment level test plans covering the control surface actuators, pilot inceptors, mission display computer, and vehicle navigation computer, plus many structural elements of the aircraft. We're now preparing to perform for credit testing on many of these test articles. Also part of stage four, we submitted two qualification plans related to the aircraft's energy storage, covering the charge port and pump, and battery control and distribution. And in a huge win for the team, we continue to move up the aircraft testing pyramid tiers with a submittal of our first system level test plan. As a reminder, we conduct testing at every level of the aircraft, from individual components to full vehicle, and we're making progress at multiple levels of the pyramid simultaneously. This test plan covers the functions of our unique low workload flight controls and vector thrust propulsion system. And it's a perfect example of why vertical integration is key to our success. With the design and development of the software and hardware for both flight controls and propulsion completed in-house, we've been able to optimize and efficiently manage all of this as one integrated system, making progress much faster than an integrator between a whole host of partners. This has proven to be true across our entire aircraft. The more pieces of the puzzle we have direct control over, the faster we can identify elements of our hardware or software that need improvement. And we can deploy solutions that are optimized for our needs. That's precisely why this quarter we completed several upgrades to our in-house testing capabilities that are critical to our certification campaign. We developed and installed new tilt, variable pitch, and control surface actuation load test stands in support of test plans covering our actuators, as well as our integrated flight and propulsion system. In support of the battery qualification plan submitted this quarter, we brought online a state of the art battery test building that can safely house routine thermal runaway testing for showing FAA compliance. And in the next few weeks, we expect to submit our second system level test plan, covering the endurance of our propulsion system, which is why we have upgraded our propulsion system test stand, or WORLY, a remarkable test asset unique to Joby that you can see in action in our shareholder letter. We've enhanced WORLY to operate at higher speeds and test across a wider spectrum of the flight envelope, thereby recording even more data for use with the FAA. Testing is a muscle, much like manufacturing and operations, and it's a critical part of the safe development and certification of new aviation technology. It is the only way to completely understand all safety and performance parameters of a design. And by doing the majority of our testing in-house, we're not only able to provide faster feedback to our design and manufacturing teams, but also have perfected our testing facilities and processes alongside our aircraft. I am proud of the team for delivering on these mature test assets that we know will accurately and efficiently give us the data we need to demonstrate the safety and performance of our aircraft, including for FAA credit. Of course, the ultimate test for any aircraft program is flight testing with a full-scale representative aircraft. This quarter, we successfully completed our pre-production prototype flight test campaign. After logging more than 1,500 flights and 33,000 miles with our two aircraft. I want to provide a little more details on what we've learned from our four years of constant flight on full-scale representative aircraft, because this comprehensive flight testing uniquely positions us for success across certification, manufacturing, and preparing for operations. First, we have developed a world-class flight test team. Our pilots, flight test engineers, and maintainers are now highly experienced at safely and efficiently executing the different types of flight tests that will be needed for certification. This is critical as we move to the next phase of our program, where we will use our production prototypes to dry run all of the flight testing we will then perform for FAA credit. Second, we have validated our design, including elements such as human factors and handling characteristics by flying at high speeds and altitude, different states of charge, and a range of weather conditions. We collected all these learnings into our models, components, and systems. The resulting improvements have already been designed into the parts we're producing now. Third, we gathered extensive testing data that informs the stage four test plans we are writing and submitting to the FAA, which we believe sets us up to have those documents accepted in short order. Fourth, we have fed learnings into our operations and maintenance program, both for type certification requirements like manuals and to inform our airline operations that Bonnie will speak to more in a moment. 10 pilots have flown a Joby aircraft through transition, including the four US Air Force pilots who trained with us in Marina last year. We have fine-tuned our pilot training course to safely prepare commercial pilots to fly the Joby aircraft in about six weeks. We're developing tools that continuously monitor the health of the aircraft systems based on operational flight data, which will be key to efficient operations at scale. And finally, we've been able to uniquely contribute to and shape the formation of our industry by providing regulators with real, practical data on aircraft characteristics like outwash and precision landing that will inform standards being developed for the broader industry on infrastructure and operations. I want to thank and congratulate the entire team on four years of incredibly successful flight. In closing, I want to touch on the remarkable progress our team continues to make on ramping up our manufacturing capacity. We've always taken a pragmatic approach to scaling manufacturing, and that approach is already paying off. Last week, we rolled our second production prototype off the line in Marina, and we have two more aircraft close behind in final assembly. As we go through each build cycle, we're learning and improving many parts of our manufacturing processes to shorten build time, improve quality, and reduce waste. These are key ingredients for successful economical production at scale, and we're building them into our processes now, rather than when we have already made much more significant capital investments. We are on track to achieve an annual production rate of 12 airplanes worth of components by the end of this year. To reiterate, some of these will be complete aircraft, and others will be parts used for development and certification testing, which requires us to shake, bake, and break many parts as we demonstrate they meet the requirements. To get to the next step, we've begun work on a significant facility expansion in Marina. The new building will more than double our manufacturing space at the airport, allowing us to target 25 aircraft per year as we continue to develop facilities in Dayton, Ohio that will support us in our goal of producing up to 500 airplanes a year. At the same time, we're expanding our conforming production to support for-credit testing. In addition to ramping production of conforming flight electronics, this quarter we began assembly of our first FAA conforming tail, which will be used as a structural test asset in for-credit testing later this year. This progress is underpinned by the maturity of our quality management system, which continues to evolve towards meeting all FAA requirements for us to receive a production certificate. From testing to certification and manufacturing, the Joby team continues to knock it out of the park, and I am so, so proud to be part of the team that's doing the hard work to bring to market the right aircraft for our mission. I'll now hand it off to Bonnie to discuss how we're preparing for what comes next.
spk05: Thank you, Didier. It's a pleasure to be here to introduce our work on operations. As Jobin said at the outset, there's a significant amount of work that needs to be completed before anyone can operate this new type of aircraft. You can achieve type certification and build a fleet of aircraft, but without items like FAA-certified full motion simulators, FAA maintenance and operating certificates, FAA-approved pilot training programs and safety management systems, you won't be able to run a commercial aviation service. Some of those items, like maintenance procedures and manuals, are actually a prerequisite for type certification. And to be clear, these requirements don't go away if you intend to sell the aircraft. Any operator will need every one of these systems in place in order to launch even a basic operation. In 2020, when I joined Joby full-time, we sat down and mapped out the full set of requirements to start operations, and we've been working on them ever since, because we realized that many of them, like simulators, have a long lead time, or like pilot training programs, could not be bought off the shelf. Now that we have a clear line of sight to start of commercial operations, we thought it would be valuable to touch on the work that we've already completed and the milestones that lie ahead. Next month, we plan to host a teach-in session where we will cover this topic in more detail. But for now, I'd like to introduce the broad themes. Our work to repair for early operations can be divided into three categories, FAA authorizations, infrastructure, and software, with safety as a common thread underpinning all three. When we say infrastructure, we mean the development of standards for landing sites and the landing sites themselves, the development of charging solutions, of ground handling processes, and decisions about aircraft storage and shipping, as well as the location and build out of maintenance and simulator facilities. And by software, we mean scheduling tools, the pilot flight planning tools, the customer interface, the maintenance tracking, the data links to the aircraft, and so much more. Just like for DDA on the certification side of the business, for operations, the long pole in the tent is FAA approvals and certifications. And this is where we are focused in the near term. By pulling ahead our work on operations, we're able to de-risk our -to-market strategy and ensure we have the right foundation in place to scale. In order to fly an aircraft for commercial passenger use, there's an extensive list of requirements and federal certifications that you need, including a part 135 operating certificate that allows you to carry passengers for revenue, a part 145 maintenance certificate that allows you to efficiently maintain and repair the aircraft as approved under its type certificate, simulators that are certified under part 60 to be used to train pilots for commercial operation, and FAA approved pilot and maintenance training programs. These are all in-depth processes that require years of work to get across the line, and we've made excellent progress on each. In May of 2022, we were awarded our part 135 operating certificate, enabling us to use conventional aircraft to simulate, test, and iterate on our future airline service, even before we have the Joby aircraft ready to take passengers. We received our part 145 maintenance certificate earlier this year, another item we've been able to tick off the list in advance. We've been working for years with our partner CAE, which we announced in March of 2022 to develop part 60 full motion simulators, and we're developing the certification plan to submit to the FAA. As Didier mentioned, we're developing our pilot training program and testing it with the US Air Force. This will form the foundation of our commercial pilot training program. With both our 135 and 145 certificates, as well as the simulators in place, we'll be able to get the Joby aircraft into service more quickly. Last but certainly not least, safety is at the core of everything we do at Joby. Just last month, the FAA announced a requirement for safety management systems, or SMS, for all 135 operators, and our SMS has already been accepted by the FAA into their voluntary SMS program. We're also the first and only in our industry to pass the stage one international standard for business aircraft operators, is BAO, audit, an important external validation of the preparation we've done to operate safely. While these FAA authorizations may seem like a number soup, I hope that you'll take away is the significant amount of work that's well underway at Joby to ensure that we're ready for operations on day one. Last week's announcement regarding the expansion of our operations and marina is also a key part of this work, as this building will host our expanded pilot training and flight simulation center, as well as aircraft maintenance facilities that are designed to support the scaling of Joby's commercial operations. We're always looking ahead and making sure that we're taking the most efficient route to starting commercial operations while putting safety at the center of everything we do. The work done by our operations team is central to this and is another area where Joby is leading in the sector. All of these preparations are well underway as we target operations in Dubai in late 2025. I look forward to unpacking these topics next month in more detail at our teaching session on operations. And now I'll hand it over to Matt to cover financials.
spk02: Thanks, Bonnie, and good afternoon, everybody. As you've heard from the team today, we continue to lead the industry across all elements of our business, certification, manufacturing, and commercialization. We also continue to lead the industry in having the strongest balance sheet. We ended the first quarter of 2024 with cash and short-term investments totaling $924 million right in line with the guidance we shared for the year. This represents the use of cash totaling 108 million, reflecting our measured pace of growth and investments. Also, as a reminder, we had an extra pay period in Q1, which results in a higher cash outlay for the quarter. We incurred a Q1 net loss of $95 million, reflecting a loss from operations of about 146 million offset by interest and other income of 51 million. Our net loss was lower by 21 million compared to the prior quarter, reflecting a higher favorable revaluation of our warrants and earn-out shares, partly offset by a higher net loss from operations. Increased operating expenses in the first quarter reflected a continued measured pace of investment in our certification and manufacturing personnel and operations, lower sequential payments from government contract deliverables, and a higher stock-based compensation expenses at the start of the fiscal year. In terms of revenue, we mentioned last quarter that we would expect it to be somewhat lumpy as our work gets underway with the DOD, and we expect revenue to grow along with our flight hours throughout the year, especially as we look ahead to the delivery of our second aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric that we reconciled to our net income in our shareholder letter, was a loss of $110 million in the first quarter. This was about 14 million higher than in the prior quarter, reflecting the higher operating expenses mentioned earlier. Our adjusted EBITDA loss was $35 million higher than in the same period last year, reflecting the growth in our organization, expenses to support manufacturing and certification, lower DOD contract deliverables, and higher production volumes as we ramp up manufacturing on our way to an equivalent of 12 aircraft per year as we exit 2024. As mentioned at the outset, we ended the quarter with $924 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Our primary use of cash in the quarter was to support our operations, where we continue to invest in our certification efforts, manufacturing, and early -to-market initiatives, which Bonnie highlighted. We spent about $7 million on property and equipment, which includes investments in test equipment assets that Didier mentioned earlier, and the acquisition of our facility in Ohio. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to our spending and to the growth of our company as we supplement our certification work with measured -to-market initiatives in advance of commercialization next year. As always, you can expect us to continue to align our investments with the growth of the business. Accordingly, we remain on track with our full-year cash spending outlook of $440 to $470 million. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we look forward to having you join us for the teach-in on operational requirements with Bonnie in June. Operator, would you please instruct participants on how to ask questions?
spk08: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. And our first question comes from the line of Andreas Sheppard with Canter Fitzgerald. Please proceed.
spk11: Hi, good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the quarter, and thanks for taking our questions. Jobin, I want to maybe start with the UAE. Obviously, a lot of movement and partnerships there. Curious to get your thoughts. It almost seems fundamentally that the industry is perhaps moving more and more to ramp up commercialization there faster than in the US. Now, obviously, this is still contingent on certification, but just curious your thoughts on how you see that marketing developing, and particularly in the near term, I get the sense that it's becoming maybe more and more scalable faster. Just curious to get your thoughts. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you, Andreas. Great to hear from you. So we are seeing fantastic lean-in from all the different government agencies in the UAE, and we're very grateful for the support across the regulatory side, the infrastructure side, and yes, very excited about the momentum. I would say that all of the work that we're doing there is built upon the foundation of the work we've been doing for the last six years plus with the FAA, and leverages everything that we're doing on stage four of the certification basis. So this is really a box plus one opportunity for us, in addition to the fantastic work we're doing with the DOD as we prepare to take two aircraft to McDill Air Force Base in Florida.
spk11: Got it. Okay, that's super helpful. Thank you for that context. Maybe just a quick follow-up. Curious if we have a timeline as to when you would expect to roll out maybe the first conforming aircraft and how close are we to transitioning that conforming aircraft with a pilot on board? Thank you.
spk06: Yeah, Andreas, thanks for the question. On that front, aligned with what we communicated in the previous quarter in terms of our roadmap on that front, maybe reiterate, there's three key things that are required to make progress on conformity. One, making sure that we have our design released and submitted and accepted by the FAA. Two is developing our conforming manufacturing lines so that we can build to those designs. And then three, progressing towards stage four where you actually have the test plans against what you're gonna execute with your test assets. As a reminder, there's no way around those three things and that's been our focus. And as you can see, we've been able to make progress on all these fronts and pretty happy with that. Now, you execute on these in three tiers, right? One, if we think about the pyramid we've talked about before, the components, the systems, and then you move into the aircraft. We've talked about a lot of the component development and execution last year and how we're building on that this year, having submitted additional test plans on more components. But also now we're moving into the system level tier of that pyramid and again, making progress on that. So you should expect us to see, continue to progress along that pyramid here towards the tip of the pyramid which is the aircraft in short order. We're well on track like we discussed in our roadmap last year.
spk08: And our next question comes from the line of Christine Liewa with Morgan Stanley, please proceed.
spk04: Hey, good afternoon,
spk02: everyone. Hey, Christine, thanks for joining.
spk04: Yeah, so look, it sounds like from your prepared remarks things are progressing towards commercialization. Thank you for all the details you provided regarding your progress with the UAE. So I guess for your first commercial mission, is this gonna be an international route or with a country like the UAE or is this gonna be US based? Any color on that would be helpful.
spk07: Hey, Christine, yeah, we do see, we do continue to see two really exciting paths forward, both here in the US in New York and LA in partnership with Delta as well as the path in the UAE and the really significant lean in from the GCAA to bring the opportunity for us to begin commercial service next year, so very excited about that. And again, on the DOD front, very pleased with the progress on that third pillar as well.
spk04: Great, and then when we look at other routes, like I'm sure as the aircraft is nearing certification, you're studying some of these routes a little closer. Do you have any updated view regarding price that you're gonna charge for some of these routes? And then as you're evaluating US and international opportunities, like what city pairs or within which cities and stops are you really looking at? What are the economics of that? Any additional detail about actual operations would be helpful.
spk09: Thanks a lot for the question, Christine, this is Paul. We're obviously very much deep in the evaluation of routes to understand price elasticity and understand demand across them. And that goes for the geographies that we're looking at here in the US. And now more recently, both in Dubai and then more broadly across the UAE, given the recent announcement. We don't have any updates to our broad thinking around economics, except to say both in the US, as we think about New York and LA, and obviously as we think about Dubai and the broader UAE, all of those are areas that have relatively high propensity to pay. They've got difficult, in many cases, very difficult infrastructure to navigate on the ground. So they're really sort of tailor-made locations as we think about the first few locations for launch. I mean, I think we're very much deep on the UAE side. So, there are 14 million tourists there. There is a large number of sites across the various Emirates that are not so easy to access. And I think that that demand profile is gonna look very favorable, but we're not yet at a point where we're going to kind of talk about the specifics around what that's gonna look like, although the work is ongoing and we hope to have updates on that soon.
spk04: Great, thank you. And looking forward to seeing that progress.
spk08: And the next question comes from the line of Savi Seif with Raymond James. Please proceed.
spk00: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Just on the flight campaign, could you talk about the type of flying that's been done on the pre-production aircraft versus the production aircraft, and including what are the differences between the two, any notable differences between the two as you operate them?
spk06: Yeah, sorry, thanks for the great question. So the campaign that we just completed on the earlier airplane was obviously extremely successful, right? 1,500 flights, 33,000 miles, and it covered a lot of aspects in terms of aircraft performance, maintainability, and so on that we talked about earlier. And one of the key things that it identified is that the fundamental design of the airplane is solid and it delivers on the mission that has the difference between that aircraft and the aircraft that we're producing right now from the manufacturing line, is that the airplanes coming out of the line right now are effectively being built under our production manufacturing line following our quality management system, which really drives us and progresses us towards the production certificate, right? So as a reminder, we need a type certificate, a production certificate, and operational certificates, right, that Bonnie talked about. That production certificate element is one of the unique things and really exciting things to be exercising right now with the airplanes rolling out the lines right now.
spk00: That's helpful. And then the type of flying is just kind of progressing the same way as you did with the first one?
spk06: Absolutely, very similar type of flying between all these airplanes.
spk00: Got it. And I appreciate the color on the operations side. I was just wondering, you know, we've gone from famine last year to feasts this year on pilot availability for the mainline and cargo airlines, but generally I think pilot supply is gonna kind of remain tight over a longer period of time. So I don't know, Bonnie, do you have any thoughts if Joby can be the solution for the part 121 operators? And also just as you look to stand up operations, just how long before you launch operations do you need to start building your own pilot supply?
spk05: Oh, thank you. And it's great to be joining the team here on the call. And thank you for the question. This is definitely right down my alley. You know, as a pilot for 30 years, I know that the shortage has been a factor off and on. For years, but we're not concerned because for us in the early years of operations, we're gonna utilize what we call an initial cadre of experienced pilots that draw from demand of two focus areas. One, there's a group of pilots, initial cadre, who enjoy being part of new aircraft introductions. And so even now we constantly get outreach from pilots who wanna be part of something new. And these are very experienced pilots. And then as a pilot of myself and as a mother, I know a significant number of pilots who really favor solutions of being home every night. Military pilots tired of being away from home and mothers and fathers trying to raise a kid. And so this is a solution for them. So there are many female pilots in particular who opted out of, they got their commercial pilot's license and then they decided that it just wasn't gonna work for them. So bringing them back into the fold. And then behind that group of several hundred pilots for our initial cadre, we're already building a pipeline of pilots. So we've got a Joby Aviation Academy where we're building out a part 141 program. We're starting with our employees and then ramping that up. So that'll sync in time for us to scale our service. And yes, we actually look at as our solution as a piece of the solution for the broader 121 because your pilots will spend a couple of years with us and some may move on to the airlines and some actually will find the lifestyle very favorable for them.
spk00: That's helpful, thank you.
spk08: And the next question comes from the line of David Zazula with Barclays, please proceed.
spk03: Hey, thanks for taking the question afternoon. First one is for Didier. If I could just get a little more color on the electric storage qualification plans that you've submitted. Any feedback you've gotten from the FAA on that and what the plan is to progress along electric storage and propulsion certification kind of in the near term?
spk06: Yeah, so in general, the electrical system distribution system has multiple test plans that we submit to the FAA. Some of them are associated with qualification and relating to the environment, for example. Others are operational in terms of being able to manage the state of charge of the aircraft. So they vary in multiple areas. I think one thing that's really important relating to your question about the feedback is most of these have been in work with the FAA for multiple years, right? So for the most part, those are not things that were dropping on the FAA for the first time here. They've been going back and forth with the FAA on multiple occasions. They're the result of not only discussions with the FAA, but also more importantly, the result of actual flights that we've executed on the two airplanes over the past four years. So the results are really, exchanges are really positive with the FAA. In fact, just before this call, we were on a call with the FAA discussing that as well as a visit. They're coming to Joby to discuss some of the remaining items. So overall, very, very positive. Maybe one last item on that. And that's what really gives us the ability and the commitment to go and invest in testing facilities like we've talked about in a few minutes ago. The investments we have in our battery facilities are really a testament to the confidence we have with those test plans.
spk03: Thanks, very helpful. And if I could just follow up on an earlier question, specific to the exclusivity in the UAA agreement, could you just give a little more on the level of exclusivity that you're expecting to see there out of the agreement and then how that would play into the inter-Emirate travel that I think you mentioned in the letter?
spk07: Yeah, so again, we have a six-year exclusive for providing air taxi service in the Emirate of Dubai. And that is granted to us by the RTA, which is the authority that has been given the purview to regulate air taxis. And so this is a partnership that we've been working on since 2018, 2017, 2018. And it's fantastic to see it coming to fruition. And very grateful for Bonnie and the operations team for leaning in on preparing for operations there. And also very grateful for DDA and the certification team on the work they're doing with the GCAA to begin laying the groundwork for type certification. So again, we're very pleased with the progress in the UAE as we are very pleased with the progress that we're making here in the U.S. with the FAA and the excitement that we're seeing from countries around the world for this really important new technology.
spk08: And the next question comes from the line of Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank, please proceed.
spk01: Hey, thanks for taking our questions. First one, insert, I'm wondering if we have some sort of scenario analysis we can maybe share in terms of what kind of timeline FAA may be on. I know it's a tough question to respond to, but it just seems things are definitely delayed and moving slower. So could you maybe share kind of some scenarios you could see on maybe when we could get to the finish line and what would be the dating factors?
spk06: Yeah, thanks for the question, Edison. Remain very excited about the engagement on the FAA side and the progress that we're making on all fronts. Like we said earlier, a lot of our focus primarily this quarter has been in three key areas as it relates to FAA. One, we're really excited about the G1 being signed and published in the Federal Register. But as we said in the last quarter, this year one came in with more prescriptive details on the showing compliance elements, which led to additional updates that were needed to the means of compliances and the area specific certification plans. So the FAA had to work with us to support some of these refreshes and we spent quite a bit of time making great progress on that front. Number two, we continue to make progress on submitting test plans that I talked about earlier, which now covers a broader range of types of test plans we're submitting, such as equipment and system level test plans. But third and probably most importantly for me, a lot of the work has been going on and really upgrading a lot of the test assets that we have here, which is really, really essential. When you think about the level of vertical integration at Joby, which is really unique to our success story, and then our plans and ability to deliver and execute on these in the second half with stage four, those were some amazing achievements and effectively where we spent a lot of our time purposefully this quarter.
spk01: I understood. A follow-up on Middle East and actually just more on international. I know we're not giving any specifics on the assumptions or the economics, but in terms of the -to-market or the business model at a high level, is this something, are you planning to, for example, in the Middle East to operate it, to sell it direct? How do we think about just how the -to-market will look like or the business model will look like?
spk09: Thanks a lot, Edison. This is Paul. So with respect to our planned operations in Dubai, we're going to be doing a lot of the work with respect to both operating those aircraft. That's in line with the agreements that we've made with RTA, and we expect that to extend across the Emirates as we think about expanding that service. So that's going to look really similar to how we think about commercial operations here in the US. Now, all that said, and there may have been some sort of misinformation or sort of misconstrual from some folks on this, we've always been very flexible as we think about what is the right way to commercialize. So when we think about customers like the DoD, for example, that is very much going to look like over a long arc, something like a sale of aircraft with sort of ongoing maintenance and support that's sort of recurring on the backend. So Joby has two different ways that we're thinking about going after the market. Some cases where we're likely to be very vertically integrated, we're actually doing the operations ourselves, and a set of customers and potentially geographies where our commercialization looks a lot more like aircraft sale. And you've already seen that really play out in the way that we're thinking about, say, the UAE market, and in turn the DoD as a customer, and we're going to maintain that flexibility as we think about continuing to expand our modes of commercialization over the next 12 to 18 months.
spk08: Thank you. And our last question will come from the line of Austin Moller with Kennercore Genuity. Please proceed.
spk10: Hi, good afternoon. Just my first question here, can you differentiate the key hardware differences between your previous flyable prototypes and the current production series aircraft that are rolling off the line at Marina now?
spk06: Yeah, hey, Austin. This is a great question. So the differences between some of the electronics components, for example, or the actuation systems are primarily, I would say, evolutions between the previous aircraft and the ones coming out of the manufacturing line. The vast majority of these fit in primarily, I would say, two categories. One is expanding, for example, the environment or the flight envelope for these pieces of equipment. So think about temperatures, for example, vibration and so on. And the other set is really associated with learnings that we've collected over time relating to expanding, for example, the reliability aspects of these equipments. So the changes are, again, an evolution based on the four years of collected data from those two airplanes.
spk10: Great. And any updates on your relationship with Toyota and if or how they might become the contract manufacturer over time while you're running flight operations?
spk07: Yeah, so as I mentioned, this is Jobin, as I mentioned, the partnership with Toyota has been incredibly valuable for us. They've had team members on site with us here in California since 2019 and as well as an incredible team working alongside us back in Japan. And I think, as many of you know, Toyota is one of the most incredible companies in the world when it comes to manufacturing very complex systems at very large scale with just spectacular quality. And so having them working shoulder to shoulder with us as we've planned our manufacturing expansion in Marina, as we're looking to the layout of our Phase 1 manufacturing facility and planning for that, and then even looking beyond that, they are the best partner that I could ever imagine. And it was, as I mentioned, incredible to have Shiga-san as well as Kaida-san and Ohara-san all join us and visit us this last quarter. We couldn't be more pleased with the support that we're receiving and optimistic about the path in the future alongside Toyota as we shift from a development phase into a scaling phase. And I think, is that our final question? Should I? So I think just as we, in closing, I would like to talk about what an incredible opportunity that we see in front of us as a company. We are so proud of the team we're building and the way that we're approaching the building this new industry. We think that our vertical integration is our superpower and that the, I think of this very akin to the early days of automotive in the late 1890s and where we were making cars in very small volumes. And I see the decades that lie ahead of us as incredibly exciting as we take to the air as a civilization. And so I'm really, really pleased with the team we're building, the culture we're building and the technologies we've developed and really look forward to talking to you all again next quarter. Thank you all so much.
spk08: Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.
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