Historic first US coast-to-coast autonomous flight completed

Joby Aviation flew a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan fitted with its J208 autonomy system 3,199 miles from Concord, California, to Dare County Regional Airport in North Carolina, with no manual control inputs from anyone on board. It left on 7 September, arrived on 14 September and was announced on 18 September, stopping at Phoenix Deer Valley, Fort Worth Alliance and Shaw Air Force Base so each leg could test something different: dense general-aviation traffic and air traffic control, autonomous cargo handling, and military logistics. The system flew every phase itself, from taxi and takeoff to cruise and landing.

A qualified safety pilot was on board for the whole trip, as FAA rules require, though they made no manual control inputs. Ground teams also supervised by satellite. The aircraft flew under an experimental research certificate, not a certified autonomous one.