{"id":681,"date":"2023-09-24T10:34:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T01:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/?p=681"},"modified":"2024-06-14T10:36:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T01:36:32","slug":"sk-telecom-and-joby-aviation-sign-collaboration-agreement-for-k-uam-grand-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/681","title":{"rendered":"SK Telecom and Joby Aviation Sign Collaboration Agreement for K-UAM Grand Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 SKT and Joby Aviation entered into a collaboration agreement for their joint participation in the K-UAM Grand Challenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 The agreement confirms that Joby\u2019s aircraft will be used to support the development of Korea\u2019s Urban Air Mobility sector through flight testing next year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 The deepened cooperation between the two companies comes following SKT\u2019s equity in investment in Joby in June 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM, \u201cSKT\u201d) today announced that it signed a collaboration agreement with Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), a California-based company developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial passenger service, to jointly participate in the K-UAM Grand Challenge.<\/p>\n

The collaboration agreement signing ceremony took place at SKT\u2019s Seoul headquarters on September 20, 2023.<\/p>\n

The two companies will combine their expertise and resources to undertake flight testing that is designed to support the development of the Urban Air Mobility sector in Korea.<\/p>\n

K-UAM Grand Challenge is a large-scale demonstration program launched by the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) to test the safety and suitability of UAM in an urban environment and to support the commercialization of UAM by 2025.<\/p>\n

SKT and Joby are part of the K-UAM Dream Team Consortium, which announced its intent to participate in the K-UAM Grand Challenge in February 2023, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MOLIT. The consortium includes a wide range of world-class partners, including Korea Airports Corporation, Hanwha Systems and T Map Mobility.<\/p>\n

The first phase of the Grand Challenge program will take place at a national flight site in Goheung, Jeollanam-do. SKT and Joby Aviation plan to use Joby\u2019s aircraft to conduct flight tests in various scenarios to check the integrated operation of the UAM system, and measure the aircraft\u2019s acoustic footprint. Joby will dispatch a flight test team to Korea to support the testing.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement, which follows SKT\u2019s strategic investment of USD 100 million in Joby Aviation in June 2023, secures the exclusive use of Joby\u2019s aircraft for the Grand Challenge. With Grand Challenge test flights expected to start next year, this is a critical step for the consortium and ensures SKT is well placed to become a market-leader in this important new sector.<\/p>\n

Joby Aviation continues to lead the way on certifying eVTOL aircraft with the FAA. It became the first eVTOL company to complete both the first and second stages of the certification process and have also completed the submission of stage three certification plans to the FAA. Joby celebrated the launch of production at its pilot production line in Marina, CA, in June and announced this week that it has selected Dayton, Ohio as the location for its first scaled manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n

Going forward, SKT will align the UAM business with its vision of becoming an AI company and plans to accelerate AI transformation of the mobility field through UAM. AI has the potential to play a transformative role in the aviation sector, minimizing travel times and supporting autonomous flight in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agreement marks a critical step on the road to making aerial ridesharing a daily reality in Korea. We\u2019re incredibly proud to be partnering with SK Telecom to deliver flights as part of the Grand Challenge and look forward to demonstrating our revolutionary technology. We\u2019re grateful for the continued leadership of the Korean Government as they seek to lead the way on the adoption of electric flight,\u201d said Eric Allison, Head of Product at Joby Aviation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this collaboration agreement, we will work closely with Joby Aviation to bring the world\u2019s most sophisticated aircraft to Korea and verify our capabilities for stable and safe UAM operations,\u201d said Ha Min-yong, Chief Development Officer of SKT. \u201cGoing forward, we will open an era of \u2018AI Mobility\u2019 by shifting the paradigm of mobility through the combination of UAM and AI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 SKT and Joby Aviation entered into a collaboration agreement for their joint participation in the K-UAM Grand Challenge. \u2022 The agreement confirms that Joby\u2019s aircraft will be used to support the development of Korea\u2019s Urban Air Mobility sector through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[126,125,124,123],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-evtol","tag-jobyaviation","tag-k-uam","tag-uam"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}