Rarely can one event kill off an entire industry, but that’s exactly what happened to airship travel when the LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames above New Jersey in 1937.  

Seventy-six years later, a new line of blimp-trepreneurs are hoping the stigma has worn off.   

What happened: Pathfinder 1 — a prototype electric airship from the Sergey Brin-backed startup LTA Research — began flight testing yesterday. Clocking in at 407 feet long, it’s the largest aircraft in the world and the biggest one to take to the skies since the 1930s. 

Hey, remember earlier this week when we raised concerns over flagging EV demand? Well, a more authoritative voice on the subject has now spoken: Elon Musk.

Driving the news: Tesla’s profits fell 44% last quarter thanks, in part, to vehicle price cuts. On the earnings call, Musk expressed worry over demand and said the company would wait to ramp up production at its new Mexican plant. Tesla shares fell by 9.3% on the bad news. 

What do four-year-old boys and the electric vehicle (EV) market have in common? Both are obsessed with trucks.  

Driving the news: Tesla missed its delivery target last quarter, shipping out 7% fewer vehicles than it did in the preceding quarter. One thing that may have contributed to this miss: The fact that its long-awaited Cybertruck has yet to be sent out to buyers. 

Physical passports and boarding passes could go the way of smoking sections on airplanes thanks to biometric technology. 

What happened: Next year, Singapore’s Changi Airport — ranked among the world’s best — will roll out a biometric system that lets travellers take off without having to flash their passports. The change will streamline operations as the airport welcomes more jet setters.

You’d think that to be one of the world’s most valuable car companies, you’d need to move a lot of hot rods.  Well… you’d be wrong.

Driving the news: Buzzy Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast disclosed in recent regulatory filings that nearly two-thirds of the vehicles it sold in the first half of the year were purchased by a taxi company owned by its parent company, Vingroup.  

A pilot pay bump that was supposed to solve WestJet’s labour retention issues and stabilize operations has resulted in the company shutting down its budget airline, Swoop.

What happened: WestJet will bring Swoop under its main wing, integrating employees and operations by the end of October. Swoop will honour its existing reservations through to the end of its published schedule, but the days of $100 flights to Los Cabos might be gone. 

Few experiences are more nightmarish than booking a rental car. Long lines, endless paperwork, and ending up in a 2004 PT Cruiser despite asking for a 2018 Honda Civic. 

Uber’s betting that people would rather skip all that and just borrow someone else’s car instead. 

Around the world, the push is on to get people to drive electric vehicles, but one big hurdle persists even in the most EV-friendly places: There just aren’t enough charging stations.