Electra began as an idea for a hybrid plane that could take off from shorter runways than traditional airplanes but have more range and speed than all-electric aircraft. Now, like other great MIT projects, it's making an impact far beyond campus. The company's fixed-wing aircraft is designed to make travel easier, especially for people who don't live in the immediate vicinity of a major airport. The plane features a smaller, more efficient engine than traditional planes, along with batteries to give it added power during takeoffs and landings. With a range of around 1,200 miles and a cruising speed of around 200 miles per hour, the plane could improve the travel experience for many kinds of trips while cutting down on fuel use. And, given the much shorter runway needs and quieter operation than traditional planes, the plane can leverage unique access points such as barges, parking lots, and soccer fields to take off and land instead of traditional airports. 'Helping people travel between 50 and 250 miles is the sweet spot for this technology,' says Electra Director of Technology Development Chris Courtin SM '19, PhD '24. 'This can be a better option than driving or commercial airlines for many kinds of trips. There's a lot of people traveling in that range and a huge amount of friction in existing ground and air transport systems. This could be a big benefit to those people.'...

A proposed bill that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate in Washington, D.C. has become a test case for Uber's broader robotaxi strategy. Instead of simply partnering with, and investing in, robotaxi developers, Uber is also trying to shape the rules that govern them, an effort that puts it in direct opposition with its business partner, Waymo. Uber, which opposes the bill, argues the proposed rule would displace for-hire human drivers and hand Waymo a de facto monopoly. It has lobbied instead for a system that would require robotaxis to operate on a ride-hailing network that also uses human drivers, according to public records viewed by TechCrunch and interviews with industry and company sources. 'We have already seen in other jurisdictions how a flawed, first-party only regulatory approach can disrupt a city,' Javi Correoso, who leads U.S. policy and federal affairs for Uber, said in May during a D.C. Council roundtable on a separate, existing statute regulating for-hire drivers. Correoso argued at the time that robotaxis create congestion by idling or cruising empty, cannot provide the kind of physical assistance to older or disabled adults that human drivers can, and cited data that states one AV displaces roughly four drivers....

Take a stroll around San Francisco and it won't take long to spot an empty autonomous vehicle cruising the city's streets, waiting to be hailed by a rider or heading off to a distant depot to be charged and cleaned. These deadhead miles ' an industry term for miles driven without a paying passenger ' are one of the biggest barriers between robotaxi companies and profitability. Redwood City, California-based startup Aseon Labs thinks it has a fix: parking space-sized automated pods that can be scattered throughout cities to inspect, clean, and charge robotaxis. The company, co-founded by the team behind battery-swapping startup Pushme, calls them robotic pit stops for the robotaxi industry. And the idea has caught the attention of investors. Aseon Labs has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Crane Venture Partners, TechCrunch has learned. Y Combinator, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp's venture firm Expa, Robin Hood Ventures, and Founders Capital also participated, along with angel investors such as serial entrepreneur and former Google executive Adrian Aoun, Mercury founder and CEO Immad Akhund, Zimride co-founder Rajat Suri, and operators and founding team members from Anthropic, Nuro, Turo, and Revolut....

The photographer Vadim Makhorov, while recently cruising on the Chukchi Sea, noticed a group of polar bears that were taking shelter inside an abandoned research station on Russia's remote Kolyuchin Island....