• Embraer wants to launch an affordable and safe electric air taxi called Eve in major cities by 2027.
• Eve has been ordered by airlines like United, and the CEO expects they'll one day be pilotless.
• EVTOLs resemble helicopters, but they have more safety redundancies and are much quieter.

The future of commuter aviation may be a teal-green octocopter that has yet to take flight.

As traffic worsens in major cities worldwide, aviation companies are betting that more consumers will soon opt to fly above the gridlock using a radical new technology that aims to cut the costs and noise of piloted helicopters.

Enter the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) — zero-emission air taxis that lift off like helicopters but fly like airplanes.

This fast-growing market, still in its early days, is expected to reach at least $4 billion by 2030, but achieving its lofty goals hinges on persuading travelers of the eVTOLs' convenience and safety.

One frontrunner is Brazil-based Eve Air Mobility, a division of Embraer — the world's third-biggest planemaker behind Airbus and Boeing.

Its CEO, Johann Bordais, told Business Insider that the new Eve eVTOL is expected to enter service by 2027 and will be more affordable than helicopters.

"The safety level, operating cost, and quietness of the eVTOL make it better than the helicopters flying today," he said. Customers can expect the buzzing sky taxis over cities like Manhattan and São Paulo for airport transfers, ride-hailing, and sightseeing.

Bordais added that Eve is designed to one day need no pilot — it'll be like the Waymo of the skies.

The focus on eVTOLs comes as other major players, including Hyundai's Supernal and Airbus' CityAirbus NextGen, have paused their electric-taxi programs this year.

Still, Embraer — which has already presold hundreds of units to United and SkyWest — has yet to fly a full-scale prototype, while two California rivals have.

Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, partnered with Delta and United, respectively, showcased their eVTOLs to the public at a California airshow in October. Both are targeting 2026 launches as they race to carry the first passengers.

Bordais said he isn't fazed: "Flying a prototype is one thing; going through certification is another."

He said Embraer is prioritizing engineering and modeling all systems and subsystems to meet operator needs and federal standards before flying what will be its first eVTOL airframe.

He added that Embraer's decades of experience certifying commercial, military, and private aircraft give it a major edge: "Certification is a milestone, and we've been through those milestones before," he said.

Here's what customers can expect onboard Eve.

Eve is designed as a four-seater electric aircraft with a range of 60 miles.

Eve is meant to whisk passengers within minutes between major cities like Manhattan or São Paulo and their airports.

A simulation on Eve's website shows a hop from Miami International Airport to South Beach would take 15 minutes.

It has rotors, propellers, and batteries for propulsion — and plenty of backups.

Eve is built with extensive redundancy — eight rotors and multiple battery packs — so if one component fails, others take over.

It's like how an airplane can safely fly on just one jet engine if the other fails.

Eve will use new and established infrastructure to start and scale up.

Many target markets already have heliports or vertiports, and Bordais said the US alone has over 5,000 airports.

Scaling up, however, requires investments in charging stations, ground support, and other infrastructure.

Embraer is working with countries including Bahrain, the US, the UK, Singapore, and Costa Rica to develop vertiports and support urban air mobility.

There is one pilot, but Embraer hopes the eVTOL will one day be autonomous.

Bordais said Eve is designed to reduce the pilot's workload, allowing them to focus on flying.

But, he said, it's also built to eventually be pilotless. Without a pilot, the eVTOL could be configured for six passengers instead of four.

"We're talking about inserting autonomous and non-autonomous aircraft into the airspace," Bordais said. "It's a journey of how to do this."

Some industry experts are skeptical about pilotless eVTOLs.

Andy Day, the SVP of operations at the private aviation safety risk management firm Wyvern, told Business Insider that he would "never be okay with completely autonomous aircraft" and that you can't replace a human's reaction and intuitiveness in an emergency situation.

Companies like Airbus, Bulgaria's Dronamic, and American planemaker Pyka are working toward autonomous flight.

Eve will begin flight testing soon.

Bordais said Eve's first full-scale prototype is expected to fly within two months. It will serve as a "knowledge accelerator," but it's not part of the certification process.

Eve has completed nearly a dozen campaigns evaluating aspects such as propeller efficiency and noise, as well as rotor behavior while the aircraft transitions between vertical movement and forward flight.

Bordais didn't provide the expected fare for Eve.

Eve would be a workhorse for airlines. United, for example, aims to build a network in San Francisco and has entered into a conditional purchase agreement for 200 Eve eVTOLs.

Bordais didn't offer fare estimates but said air taxi fares are trending downward with new technology.

"Would we want to see Manhattan to [New York] JFK be $220 or $250? Yes, but it's going to be up to the operator to decide the price," he said, adding that eVTOLs are expected to be cheaper than helicopters.

Joby and Archer said their fares would be about those of an Uber Black.

Based on midday rates on a recent Wednesday, an UberBlack from New York-JFK to Grand Central Terminal costs $172 for the entire car.

Joby and Archer would charge per seat, so an eVTOL ride would be $508 for a family of four. The car is cheaper, but, based on average drive times, the UberBlack would take at least three times as long as Eve's 10-minute hop.

Bordais said the biggest priority for Eve is safety.

Safety is crucial, especially amid a negative public perception stemming from two high-profile helicopter crashes in 2025.

Bordais said Eve's propellers are off during boarding — unlike a helicopter's spinning blades — and the aircraft can glide during a power loss, making it more survivable during forward flight than a helicopter's auto-rotation.

"Embraer has a long history of making safe airplanes that fly 100 million people a year," he said.

• The health reporter Kim Schewitz used to be a chronic alarm clock snoozer who felt tired all the time.
• Jet lag helped her work out in the morning for the first time, then three things turned it into a habit.
• Becoming a morning person has boosted her mood and energy throughout the day.

Here's an embarrassingly cold take: waking up early and exercising has changed my life.

The kicker, however, is that I went from being a late-rise-lifer to a workout-before-work kind of girl almost overnight.

Since I was little, I would repeatedly snooze my alarm clock each morning until I had to get up. The evidence on whether this makes you feel more tired is mixed, but I would get stuck in a state of sleep inertia, prolonging the period of confusion and sleepiness when you first wake up. It left me feeling anxious, and I would struggle to focus all day.

But for the last eight months, I've forced myself out of bed when my first alarm goes off (no snoozing!) and done a yoga or reformer pilates class (sorry) before work most days. Sometimes, if my body is too tired, I'll just go for a walk or grab a coffee.

I feel more energetic, less anxious, and generally in better spirits. Is that surprising? Definitely not. But it's still a massive win.

I used jet lag to my advantage

Fed up with feeling so sluggish, I set my sights on becoming a morning lark about a year and a half ago, but each time I set my alarm and planned to get out of bed early, I just couldn't manage it by morning. However, I was able to make the shift after I returned to London from a vacation in Sri Lanka in March.

For those first few days, I took jet lag waking me up at sunrise as an opportunity to book myself into a morning yoga class. At the time, I did around three evening yoga classes per week, building my fitness and strength with an activity I genuinely love. But fear of the unknown meant I was scared of morning classes. What if I couldn't handle a full hour of exercise at that hour? What if it made me too tired to concentrate at work?

As I went to sleep the night before my first 7:30 a.m. class, I was nervous and presumed it would take my body at least a few test runs to adapt. But I was pleasantly surprised when I felt more energized than usual.

I loved starting my day with movement, giving myself time to wake up before work, and doing something for my own enjoyment and well-being before locking in for eight hours. I discovered a whole world that had been going on while I was usually asleep.

I hate to say it, but I was instantly hooked.

As time went on, I adjusted to U.K. time and the novelty wore off, which made it more challenging to get up when my alarm went off pre-7 a.m.

But I felt no more rested on the days I went back to my snoozing ways.

I learned a big lesson: Waking up is painful either way! I feel fine after 10 minutes, but when I snooze I end up feeling tired all day.

Waking up for something I enjoy and am financially tied to helps me get out of bed

Jet-lag helped kickstart my new routine, but I think three things helped me make it into a habit.

Firstly, I wake up early to do something enjoyable, whether that's yoga or walking to get a coffee. It wouldn't work if I were forcing myself to go to the gym, do a run, or meal prep because I don't like those things.

Secondly, booking myself into a class is essential because I wake up with a sense of urgency. The class operates a zero-minute lateness policy, and as a law-abiding citizen, the idea of breaking a rule fills me with panic. Plus, there's the financial incentive: If I don't show up I will be fined up to £12 ($15.70). At times, I've told myself I'd follow a YouTube yoga video at home in the morning instead, but that never happens.

Finally, I know how much better I feel all day when I do this, and as someone who struggles with low mood and anxiety, the alternative is just not worth the extra time in bed.

This is what my average morning looks like:

• Wake up around 6:45 a.m.
• Get straight out of bed, brush my teeth, wash my face with water, and put on SPF.
• Turn on BBC Radio 4 and listen to the news while I put on my workout clothes.
• Do a 45-minute to one-hour class.
• Walk home and get a coffee on the way.
• Log on to Slack at 9 a.m.

Tons of successful people — from Dolly Parton to JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon and the longevity bro Bryan Johnson — are early risers, usually because they say it's their most productive time.

But my motivation for becoming a morning person is more about feeling good than getting more done.

The next time you have jet lag, why not give it a go?

• Sunday Robotics, a robotics startup, spent less than 2 years in stealth, developing a home robot named Memo.
• Memo can autonomously clear the dinner table and load the dishwasher, the startup said.
• CEO Tony Zhao said his company achieved the feat by using gloves that mimic the robot's hands.

Everyday tasks like clearing the dinner table and loading the dishwasher are a major dexterity challenge for home robots that can require a lot of training data and capital.

A new startup says it spent less than two years and a fraction of the costs to figure it out.

On Thursday, Sunday Robotics emerged from stealth to demonstrate Memo, a fully autonomous home robot on wheels that can complete household tasks.

A video posted on X by the company's cofounder, Tony Zhao, showed Memo move from the dining room to the kitchen to clear the table of dishes and load them in the dishwasher. The company said Memo was conducting the task autonomously.

One other feat included Memo picking up two wine glasses, which can be notoriously fragile, with one hand. The robot also folded socks and loaded up an espresso machine.

Sunday Robotics, also known as Sunday, was founded in April 2024 by Zhao and Cheng Chi, both of whom have a background in robotics.

"Today, we present a step-change in robotic AI," Zhao said in an X post. The cofounder added that Memo broke zero wine glasses over more than 20 live demo sessions.

To get a robot to interact with common household items — some of which can be delicate — is a crucial benchmark for dexterity in the world of robotics.

For one, replicating the human hand, which has thousands of touch receptors, is a challenging engineering feat in itself. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said as much in the company's latest earnings call in October.

The information used to train robots is also a major bottleneck.

Many companies have turned to teleoperations, in which a human controls a robot via joysticks or various controllers, to teach robots. Other companies are experimenting with synthetic data and simulations.

Sunday doesn't use any of those widely accepted methods. Instead, the startup's cofounder said the company built a proprietary glove that mimics the shape of the Memo's Lego-like hands.

A human wears the gloves and completes specific tasks, which will provide data to Memo such as the amount of force used to pick up an object.

Zhao said that this method presents a more efficient and cost-effective means of training robots. In an X post, he said the glove gives "two orders of magnitude higher capital efficiency compared to teleoperation ($200 vs $20,000)."

Zhao added that this is also scalable since data can be collected anywhere without having to lug Memo around. The startup has more than 500 human data collectors across the US, providing training data for Memo.

"In robotics, if the only thing we can rely on is teleoperation, to gather the amount of training data it would take like decades for sure," Zhao said in an interview with "TBPN."

• Google's Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro showcase major advances in generative AI technology.
• The new AI models demonstrate improved spatial reasoning, fixing past image generation flaws.
• Google's AI progress reestablishes its leadership in tech and boosts the company's value.

In 2017, Google was criticized for a bad emoji. This week, CEO Sundar Pichai fixed it. How he did this says a lot about the progress Google has made in generative AI.

The internet giant schooled the rest of the tech industry when it launched its latest model, Gemini 3, on Tuesday. It followed that up by rolling out an upgraded image-generation tool called Nano Banana Pro, which is churning out impressive, realistic pictures, diagrams, and charts.

Google proved that AI scaling laws still work, just as its rivals are being questioned. The stock jumped to a record, making the company worth more than Microsoft.

This is all a long way from 2017. Back then, Google rolled out a cheeseburger emoji for Android smartphones. It had the cheese under the meat. Absolute scandal.

Pichai apologized and said Google would get working on a fix immediately, in a joking kind of way.

Fast forward to this week with the launch of Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro.

These new AI models are much better at creating and rendering images. Their understanding of 3D space and how the world works, physics-wise, has improved so much that they now absolutely nail the cheeseburger stack.

Pichai tweeted an AI-generated image out to prove the point, writing "iykyk" as a nod to the 2017 furor. As you can see, the earth has been set back on its correct axis, and we can all calm down: the cheese is above the meat.

OK, it's time to get serious. Why am I telling you this?

The ability of AI models to innately understand where stuff should go in the world is really important.

"Normally, AI models struggle with spatial orientation, particularly with respect to the relative position of objects," Balaji Srinivasan, a tech investor and former Coinbase CTO, wrote on X after Pichai's latest burger post. "But this image (if rendered by Gemini 3) seems to resolve that issue, as the exact spatial positioning of the cheese is handled correctly and precisely."

If AI models can know where cheese should go in a burger, they might also know where more important stuff should be in the real world. That could mean better machine decision-making in design, engineering, and other fields.

One theoretical example: A safety barrier likely needs to be placed in the right spot on the corner of a road. Maybe AI models can guide workers to put this structure in exactly the best spot, down to the millimeter.

There's another takeaway from this eight-year cheeseburger saga. Google has been criticized for being behind in generative AI, and this week's releases have finally put those questions to bed.

Powerful products like Gemini 3 take many years, and a lot of technical research and plumbing, to pull off. Google has been working at this for a very long time, and Pichai has been pushing the company toward an AI-first mindset for about a decade. Now the fruits of these labors are showing through.

"Google really did drop everything they were doing to truly focus on AI. And Gemini 3 represents the moment when they actually retook the lead, at least for now," Srinivasan wrote. "When combined with Sundar doubling Google's revenue to $100B, he's proven he can lead Google to unprecedented heights both technologically and commercially."

"Hence: iykyk. If you know, you know," he added.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• Trump met with Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office — and had only nice things to say afterwards.
• Trump said he shared goals and ideas with the mayor-elect, including addressing affordability.
• He also said he would feel comfortable living in the city under Mamdani's administration.

Zohran Mamdani appears to have charmed Donald Trump.

Following a meeting with the New York City mayor-elect in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon, the president had nothing but nice things to say about the man whose politics couldn't be different than his.

"I think you're going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor," Trump told reporters as Mamdani stood beside him. "He's going to surprise some conservative people, actually."

It marked a striking reversal in Trump's rhetoric toward the Democratic socialist state assemblyman. In recent months, the president had derided Mamdani as a "communist," urged New Yorkers to support his chief opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and had even threatened to cut off federal funding to the city if Mamdani were elected mayor.

On Friday, all of that seemed to be buried.

Mamdani sounded a conciliatory note, pointing out that he and Trump shared many voters and that both had run campaigns based on addressing affordability concerns.

"We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities," Mamdani said. "We spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out."

Trump described Mamdani as "rational," said that he "really wants to see New York be great again," and said he and the mayor-elect shared many of the same goals. Most significantly, Trump pledged to work with Mamdani, saying he expects "to be helping him, not hurting him."

At one point, Trump — who was born in raised in New York City — even said that he would feel comfortable living in the city with Mamdani as mayor.

"Absolutely," Trump said. "I want him to do a great job, and we'll help him do a great job."

The two men seemed to find one particular point of agreement: the rates charged by Con Edison, the main energy provider in the New York City area.

"We've gotten fuel prices way down, but it hasn't shown up in Con Edison," Trump said. "We have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates."

"Absolutely," Mamdani added.

In some ways, the mutual respect isn't completely unexpected. Both men have shown an ability to garner and hold attention in the modern media environment, which Trump acknowledged at one point when speaking to reporters.

"The press has eaten this thing up," Trump said. "You know, outside, you have hundreds of people waiting."

"He's different than, you know, your average candidate," Trump added. "He came out of nowhere."

The president even sought to smooth things over when a reporter asked Mamdani if he considers the president to be a fascist. As Mamdani began to answer, a smiling Trump interjected.

"That's okay, you can just say yes," he said. "It's easier than explaining it. I don't mind."

• A decades-old Wisconsin ski resort has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
• Back-to-back winters of "extremely low" snowfall gutted the resort's revenues, lawyers said.
• The Chapter 11 filing "provides a path forward" for the popular Whitecap Mountains Resort.

A popular Wisconsin ski resort that has been around since the 1960s has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it fights to survive another winter on the slopes.

Midwest Skiing Company LLC, which owns and operates the Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson, Wisconsin, said in court papers that it filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after back-to-back winters with "extremely low" snowfall gutted its revenue and left it buried in debt.

The resort, with 43 ski runs across 400 acres, has been touted as the "snowiest ski resort in Wisconsin," a court filing in its bankruptcy case said, adding that Whitecap Mountain annually gets "some of the highest snowfall in the state making for excellent conditions and regular powder days."

However, the past two winters have brought little of the snow that built the resort's reputation.

Snowfall at the resort plummeted from 260 inches in the 2022-2023 season to less than 30 inches the next winter, slashing revenue from roughly $1.4 million to about $197,000, the court papers said. The most recent season brought less than 60 inches of snow and only about $532,000 in total revenue.

"The low revenue in 2023 put the Debtor in a position where it needed additional funding to cover its revenue shortage," said the filing. "While the Debtor survived the 2023-24 season, it required short-term financing to bridge the gap until the next ski season and payoff several expenses."

Lender declared resort 'in default'

The resort — which is all-season, but known for its skiing — turned to private lender Brighton Asset Management for a short-term loan to help it get by. Another "slow" 2024-2025 season prevented the resort's owner from extending or refinancing the loan, the court papers say.

Brighton said Midwest Skiing Company was "in default" on about $1.86 million in debt and, through a lawsuit, moved to foreclose on the resort's property, according to the court motion seeking approval to use cash collateral.

A court ruled in favor of Brighton in August.

Midwest Skiing Company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy "to put a stop to the collection efforts and speculation within its community and among customers over the upcoming snow season," the filings said.

"The automatic stay under the bankruptcy code stops Brighton from moving forward with collection through foreclosure or replevin," attorneys for Midwest Skiing Company wrote in the filing.

Customers and employees "can be confident," the filing said, that Midwest Skiing Company "will retain control and continue operations through the upcoming snow season."

In its bankruptcy petition, Midwest Skiing Company estimated its assets as between $1 million and $10 million, with the same range for its estimated liabilities.

Attorneys for the company wrote in court papers that the Chapter 11 filing "provides a path forward" for the resort "to continue its operations for years to come under a plan of reorganization."

The court papers say that Midwest Skiing Company — which has been owned by ski and hospitality industry veteran David Dziuban since 2008 — merged this week with Glebe Mountains, Inc., allowing for a "more efficient and less costly reorganization."

Attorneys for Midwest Skiing Company and Brighton did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Business Insider on Friday.