Most Read This Week: Thousands Hit by Cellular Outage, Flying Taxi Company Gets FAA Approval

Here are the most-read stories in IoT World Today this week:

Flying Taxi Company Third Stage Certification Approved by FAA

Joby Aviation, a Californian electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi developer, has completed the third of five stages for official certification.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Joby’s certification plans covering all of the electric aerial vehicle’s (EAV) structural, mechanical and electrical systems and the company’s approach to cybersecurity, human factors and noise.

Joby’s air taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers and travel at speeds of up to 200 mph.

The approval lays the groundwork for Joby to begin for-credit testing across all areas of its EAV program.

In the next stage of the certification process, Joby plans to complete tests and analysis for FAA credit covering every component and system as well as the entire EAV.

See Joby’s EAV in action >>>

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Users Hit by Major Cellular Outages

Thousands of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers across the U.S. are being impacted by a major cellular outage this morning.

AT&T seems to be experiencing the largest number of issues, with reports of outages topping 51,000 and growing as of 7:30 a.m., according to data from DownDetector,  a platform that collects outage reports from users.

Related:Most Read This Week: Flying Taxi Company Moves to Production; Humanoid Robot Gains New Skills

More than 2,000 Verizon users also reported cell phone outages, as well as 1,100 T-Mobile customers.

Impacted cities included Houston, LA, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami, the website reported.

The San Francisco Fire Department posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the outage was also preventing people from contacting emergency services.

Read more about the incident >>>

Flying Taxi Company Partners on Services, Electric Jets in Philippines

Electric aerial vehicle maker Lilium is teaming with private jet and helicopter operator PhilJets to establish advanced air mobility services in the Philippines and other Southeast Asia countries.

The companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop routes and determine passenger demand for an on-demand eVTOL service in the region. 

The deal also includes the sale of 10 Lilium jets to PhilJets, and the plan is to bring high-speed regional air mobility to Southeast Asia.

The seven-seater vehicles are planned as a regional air mobility service, connecting cities and towns up to 125 miles apart at speeds of up to 185 mph.

“The Philippines is well suited for eVTOLs to effectively connect thousands of islands together through sustainable and high-speed air mobility,” said Sebastien Borel, Lilium’s chief commercial officer. “Asia is a key market for Lilium, and with the unique topographical challenges this region presents, the innovative design of the Lilium Jet is uniquely suited to address them.”

Find out more about the deal >>>

Flying Taxi Company Buying 120 Chargers, Liquid-Cooled Cables

Lilium is also partnering with an electric vehicle charging infrastructure and microgrid company to provide charging systems for its electric jets.

The company also announced it is buying 120 chargers from Star Charge for its ground and flight-testing vehicles. The chargers use a long, liquid-cooled charging cable for high-performance charging.

“Our partnership with Star Charge will support the Lilium Jet´s development and certification along with our customers’ ground infrastructure development,” said Lilium chief commercial officer Sebastien Borel. “Its high performance and liquid-cooled charging cable is a unique feature and Star Charge´s proven expertise in charging infrastructure is crucial for regional air mobility,”

Read more about the tech >>>

Wyze Camera Breach Impacts Thousands

Security camera maker Wyze has revealed a breach that allowed users to see into each other’s camera feeds has impacted thousands of people.

It was initially announced that the incident impacted 14 users, though in recent updates this number has risen to 13,000.

In an emailed update, Wyze said the incident originated from Amazon Web Services.

In response, Wyze said it has added a new verification layer for users to go through before they can connect to Event Videos.

This is not the first time Wyze has been impacted by a security breach. Last September, a similar incident was reported where some customers could access live video from other users’ cameras.

Read more about the incident >>>