GoKawiilJoby Aviation flies Cessna Caravan 3,200 miles with no pilot input amid FAA ground-stop scare
Joby Aviation says it flew a single-engine Cessna Caravan across the US from California to North Carolina with a safety pilot aboard who never touched the controls, navigating weather and busy airspace autonomously. The flight came weeks after the FAA rolled out an AI-assisted air traffic tool called SMART, and shortly before an unrelated communications failure forced a nationwide ground stop; officials said there was no evidence AI or a cyberattack caused that outage, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he could not rule it out entirely.