• Skytrax conducted a passenger satisfaction survey to determine the best airlines to fly first class.
• Air France was named the best airline to fly first class for its 38-square-foot La Première suite.
• Airlines across the industry are adding more premium offerings to attract higher-paying customers.

As airlines across the industry bolster their premium offerings to attract higher-paying passengers, first-class amenities are only getting more luxurious.

In some first-class cabins, travelers can enjoy private suites with double beds and food by Michelin-starred chefs. Other airlines offer spacious pods with multiple seating options and headrests with built-in speakers.

Between September 2025 and August 2026, travelers from over 100 nationalities filled out an airline passenger satisfaction survey conducted by Skytrax, an aviation rating company, to determine the best airlines to fly first class.

Here are the winning first-class carriers in Skytrax's 2026 World Airline Awards.

10. Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways made the top 10 of Skytrax's ranking with amenities such as an à la carte menu, Diptyque amenity kits, and loungewear from The White Company.

9. Qantas Airways

First-class travelers on Qantas can enjoy perks like armchair seating with in-seat massages and a self-service bar and lounge.

8. ANA (All Nippon Airways)

First class on ANA includes sliding doors, lie-flat seats, and lavish meals featuring items such as sashimi, wagyu beef, and miso soup.

7. Japan Airlines

First-class suites on Japan Airlines' Airbus A350-1000s come with double beds, headrests with built-in speakers, wardrobes, and 43-inch TVs.

6. Swiss International Air Lines

Swiss International Air Lines' first-class cabins include armchairs that transform into lie-flat beds, pajamas designed by Zimmerli of Switzerland, and Cuvée Louise Champagne from Maison Pommery.

5. Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay Pacific's first-class suites feature luxuries like 600-thread-count sheets, BOSE noise-canceling headphones, and an extensive wine selection.

4. Emirates

In addition to flying in private suites, first-class passengers on Emirates' Airbus A380 fleet also have access to a shower and lounge.

3. Lufthansa

In a 2023 press release unveiling Lufthansa's new first-class suites, Lufthansa Airlines CEO Jens Ritter said that the design "conveys the feeling of privacy and individuality similar to a hotel room." Skytrax named Lufthansa the third-best airline to fly first-class.

2. Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines' first-class suites are spacious enough for a bed plus a reclining chair, and two suites can be combined into a double for two people. It's the runner-up in Skytrax's ranking of the best first-class airlines.

1. Air France

Skytrax named Air France, whose first-class cabins offer a nearly 38-square-foot La Première suite and food created by Michelin-starred chefs, the best airline for first-class travel.

California Governor Gavin Newsom will spend more than $230 billion on a train that may never run, yet he won’t let a single trainload of Wyoming coal reach a port taxpayers already funded.

Last month, the California governor signed a bill to kill a coal export terminal in Oakland before it even opens. The project would be the West Coast’s first terminal, a direct link between Wyoming miners and buyers across the globe who want affordable, reliable power. President Trump backed it this summer with $75 million through the Defense Production Act. Far-left politicians in Sacramento responded to this historical investment with a new layer of environmental review written to stall the project until its investors give up.

California Democrats introduced the bill immediately after the president’s announcement. The bill’s author sold it as a way to block coal and defy the president. At least she was honest about her intentions.

GAVIN NEWSOM'S 'HIDDEN CLIMATE TAX' HITTING AMERICANS NATIONWIDE, LAWMAKER WARNS

The Oakland terminal spent years navigating the gauntlet of California’s burdensome regulatory and legal regime. The project passed environmental review, among the most punishing in the country. Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in the site, including more than $240 million from California taxpayers. After years of litigation, all won by the developers, the City of Oakland conceded and began advancing development of the terminal.

California politicians didn’t like the result — so they changed the rules.

AMERICAN BUSINESSES AREN’T ALLOWED TO BUILD. IT’S TIME CONGRESS HELPED THEM

That should alarm anyone who builds anything in California, whatever they think of coal. America and the world need affordable, available, reliable energy. If lawmakers can void a permit retroactively because they dislike the product or the president who supports it, no approval in the state is safe. Today it is Wyoming coal. Tomorrow it could be an oil refinery, a manufacturing facility or a housing development that runs afoul of Sacramento’s political priorities.

The governor further revealed his extreme priorities that same day when he vetoed another bill to speed up the hiring of auditors for California’s high-speed rail project. California spent $15 billion over 18 years. It has failed to lay a single mile of track.

California promised voters a passenger line connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020 for a cost of $33 billion. It is now estimated to cost between $126 to $231 billion with completion not expected until 2040.

When Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revoked $4 billion in federal grants to California’s bullet train boondoggle last year, Newsom sued and lost. He still defends the wasteful spending. Meanwhile, California Democrats continue to sacrifice economic growth, jobs and taxpayer dollars at the altar of climate extremism.

CEO SAYS DOING BUSINESS IN STATE ‘SUCKS’ AS COMPANY HEADS TO TEXAS AMID CALIFORNIA EXODUS

Wyoming offers the opposite model. We sit atop more than 600 years of coal reserves. Demand for electricity across Asia is climbing fast. Those nations will burn coal whether California approves of it or not. The only question is whose coal. American coal offers the United States an abundance of affordable, reliable power here at home and enhanced diplomatic leverage abroad.

Wyoming will not sit quietly while California politicians attempt to shut our energy producers out of global markets. Wyoming has made clear that we will use every tool at our disposal, including legal action, to defend our state and its industries. Wyoming coal supports families and communities across our state, strengthens America’s energy security and can help meet enormous global demand for reliable energy.

This fight is bigger than coal. California has already driven out its builders and manufacturers. Now it wants to export its dysfunction to every state that relies on its port.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Wyoming will keep mining. California can keep its train.

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis is a Republican from Wyoming who sits on the Senate Banking, Commerce, and Environment and Public Works committees. 

Harriet Hageman, a Republican, is the lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming. 

• Elon Musk has repeatedly said cars will drive themselves around the world.
• Now, he's making a bolder claim: Tesla will dominate that autonomy, he predicts.
• The only thing that could get in the way, Musk says: these pesky governments!

Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously thinks bots will drive us around.

On Wednesday, he took that long-running vision of autonomy a step further. During the automaker's earnings call, Musk predicted that Tesla itself would dominate how passengers get around — so long as pesky regulators don't get in the way.

"I think Tesla will end up doing a majority of all passenger miles on Earth in any country where it is allowed to operate freely," he said. "And you can come back and look at this prediction, but I feel confident about this prediction."

He said Tesla's biggest hurdle to world domination is foreign governments blocking autonomous tech "to protect a domestic industry."

That is a bolder statement than Musk's prior autonomy predictions.

During a January earnings call, he said the "vast majority of miles traveled" would eventually be autonomous and guessed that people would manually drive fewer than 5% of miles. That prediction left other autonomous competitors — Waymo, Zoox, Ford, GM, Rivian, etc. — in the fray.

Vehicle autonomy is core to Tesla's valuation story. The company says its future lineup will include only one vehicle that drivers can operate manually: the high-priced Roadster.

In September, the company started rolling out the steering-wheel-less Cybercab for ride-hailing in Texas.

That rollout has had its fits and starts. While Tesla says it's ramping production and preparing to launch Cybercab rides in Florida, the NHTSA issued an audit inquiry hours after the car's public release to probe the automaker's self-certification.

Musk, who has described his predictions as his "best guesses," has missed several recent timelines for Tesla's autonomy rollout — including a prediction that unsupervised autonomy would ramp across the US in 2025.

Now, Tesla has a new target date for the consumer launch of its full self-driving software. On Wednesday, Ashok Elluswamy, the company's VP of AI, said unsupervised FSD is coming "somewhere around Q2 next year."

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• I booked two separate flight itineraries on different airlines for a family trip to Ireland.
• I realized this was a mistake after the first airline diverted, and the second left without us.
• The fix cost my family nearly $3,000 in new tickets and a day's worth of touring.

I'm a veteran traveler who has booked more long-haul flights than I can count. But earlier this year, I made a very expensive rookie mistake.

While planning a trip, I came across a deal I couldn't pass up: a $317 one-way flight on Icelandair to Ireland with a multi-day layover in Reykjavik. It was essentially a way to take a trip within a trip without paying extra airfare.

The catch? The flight departed from New York, not our home airport in Florida. I'd be in New York a few days early, but my family would need to fly up to meet me. Booking separate itineraries was far from ideal, but I figured a five-hour buffer would be enough.

It wasn't.

A storm in New York canceled my family's JetBlue flight from Florida, and their replacement flight then couldn't land and was diverted to Virginia. Their Icelandair flight to Europe was automatically canceled after they were marked as no-shows.

On the night we were supposed to fly together to Iceland, my family was stuck states away, and I was scrambling to find a solution.

With my family's original flight gone, we had to spend nearly $3,000 to get them back on track and navigate the complicated credit card trip insurance process. Here are 4 lessons I learned the hard way.

Booking separate itineraries comes with a pricey risk

Arriving in the city of your next flight at least 24 hours before may feel a bit extreme, but it's the minimum safety net you need.

Being already in the right location for your flight can be a huge weight off your shoulders. It also allows sufficient time for rebooking should something go wrong with your flight.

My last-minute whim to visit a few friends upstate turned out to be key. Those extra two nights in New York meant I was able to make the flight to Iceland. If I had booked my family of three on a flight the day before our long-haul flight, they would have made it too.

My family made it to New York the next morning and ended up taking a replacement flight to Iceland that evening, getting in about 24 hours later than originally planned. I bought two basic economy tickets for $734 each, and one standard economy ticket with extra baggage allowance for $1,105. In total, I spent $2,573 on new tickets.

The costly mistake made me realize that although an extra hotel night is an added expense and may mean using more PTO, it's a cheap investment compared to the cost of new international flights — and the cost of missed events — if things don't go to plan.

This is especially worth it if you have definite plans right after your arrival, such as a cruise or a concert.

Neither airline has to help in my scenario

When you book connecting flights on a single itinerary, the airline is responsible for getting you to your destination. If you miss that connection through no fault of your own, then the airline will put you on another available flight at no additional cost.

When you book flights separately, you're responsible for making each connection — or buying new tickets if you miss one. And generally, regardless of reason, the airline operating your next flight isn't obligated to accommodate you if you miss it because of a problem with your previous airline.

Our tickets to New York and Iceland were separate, so despite numerous calls to each airline, none were responsible for the missed connection. If you do miss a connection on a single booking, look up alternatives yourself and discuss them with the agent. It's not guaranteed, but they may be able to accommodate you on a partner airline at a more convenient time.

And remember, it's not the staff's fault for the disruption. You get more bees with honey.

I should have read the fine print

I didn't book the cheapest fare, but I didn't read the fine print either.

When things started to go wrong, I was shocked to see there was a $250 change fee per person on my original flight and no refunds. Changing the tickets would have cost nearly as much as the original flight, plus the fare difference.

At the time, it was uncertain when my family would actually arrive in New York and feasibly be able to catch the next flight to Iceland, so we didn't change the tickets. Missing the first flight on this stopover itinerary meant my family was marked a no-show and their onward leg to Dublin was canceled, which is standard airline policy.

While there were other ways to get to Iceland, there were few nonstop flights from Iceland to Ireland — a one-stop meant at least four extra hours of travel — so the best option was to book a new stopover ticket with Icelandair.

When I started booking the new tickets, I noticed that almost every fare class had punitive cancellation and change policies — and this time I was sure to be familiar with the terms of my booking.

I need to better understand my credit card's trip protections

Premium credit cards can have your back when flight plans go wrong, but they don't cover everything.

We used the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business' trip cancellation and interruption protection for the original Icelandair tickets and were reimbursed $952. The coverage typically reimburses covered unused, prepaid expenses — but not the cost of buying new airline tickets.

Trip delay coverage doesn't either, but it can cover other expenses for covered trips. However, credit card policies vary — and this is where I went wrong.

We booked the flights to New York on an American Express Business Platinum Card but used a different card for the return flights. That meant the Amex trip-delay protection did not apply: its terms require the full round-trip fare to be charged to the eligible card.

I had split the flights across cards to preserve Chase's bag-delay protection, but I didn't realize I was giving up the Amex protection in the process, so the $103 spent on dinner after the diversion wasn't covered. For future trips, I'll use only one credit card with good travel protections for all my trip expenses to reduce complications.

Airlines may also provide some compensation for flight disruptions. In our case, my family was reimbursed for a hotel stay ($185) on the night they were diverted. When delayed, I always keep receipts of all my added expenses to submit to the appropriate parties.

Overall, although our vacation had a rocky start and cost more than we planned, we had a great trip and are glad we pushed through it.

Missing a flight always seems avoidable in hindsight, and some things are beyond anyone's control, but with a few precautions, we can travel more confidently. Next time, I'm booking the extra hotel night.

• SpaceX is phasing out its popular Falcon 9 rocket in favor of its much larger Starship rocket.
• That presents a headache for the US Space Force, POLITICO reports.
• The Space Force has said it's open to eventually using SpaceX's Starship. But there are engineering challenges to overcome.

SpaceX's plans to retire its most popular rocket could jeopardize the United States' ability to launch military satellites — a plight compounded by the Pentagon's dependence on Elon Musk's company.

SpaceX is by far the dominant player in the rocket business and indispensable to the military, dwarfing competitors and accounting for 85% of US launches in 2025. The company is phasing out its Falcon 9 rocket to make way for Starship, a massive new vehicle that SpaceX says will be more efficient and profitable, but which many military satellites aren't designed to fit.

The situation leaves the Space Force in a launch crunch that could affect the military's ability to put its advanced satellites in orbit — and on time. The Pentagon has few alternatives to ferry its equipment, and SpaceX's competitors are likely years away from being able to offer comparable services, reports POLITICO, which — like Business Insider — is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.

"Everybody's having problems, so the Space Force is freaking out a little bit about launch," one former Space Force official, who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

It also highlights the scale of Musk's company's footprint and the way its business decisions can affect the security of countries including the United States. From the battlefield in Ukraine, where Kyiv is dependent on his Starlink satellite internet service, to cutting-edge artificial intelligence and SpaceX's stranglehold over the pathways to orbit, the world's first trillionaire has a direct hand in the technology that will shape the future.

The Space Force recently tried to book rides for three future satellite missions, but SpaceX declined to offer its services, according to two people familiar with the missions. No other rocket companies offered to take them either, the people said.

A top official at the Space Force downplayed the problem about finding rockets to launch military satellites.

"I wouldn't say there [are] missions I'm worried about being able to fly; I would say we're working through the right way to support those customers," said Brig. Gen. Eric Zarybnisky, the Space Force's acting portfolio acquisition executive for space access.

But Zarybnisky acknowledged growing pains for the government and space industry as demand for rockets increases. "Temporarily, there are some things we'll need to work through, again, as we get new providers flying," he said.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

The three Space Force missions that didn't find a ride were listed through the National Security Space Launch initiative, or NSSL — the program the service uses to buy rocket launches for its satellites.

Two of the missions were for the Space Development Agency, according to the people. The agency is a branch of the Space Force that's building a network of hundreds of military satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide expanded data services, and missile warning and tracking capabilities.

Details about the third Space Force mission or the precise date for when the Space Force hoped to launch the missions are unclear.

The Space Force has set up a two-lane system for buying its launches, one for less demanding efforts and another for more challenging missions. The hope was that new competitors, such as Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and Relativity, would have an easier time winning contracts for the lower-risk missions. But SpaceX has dominated both lanes with its Falcon rocket, and other providers have been slow to scale up.

The Space Force hopes to use two large rockets from SpaceX competitors to ferry key military satellites into orbit: United Launch Alliance's Vulcan and Blue Origin's New Glenn.

But the Vulcan rocket has struggled to launch consistently and was grounded earlier this year after problems with its solid rocket boosters. Space Force officials have been frustrated by ULA's delays and have moved missions slated for a Vulcan to a SpaceX Falcon.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin's New Glenn program had a devastating setback in May when a rocket exploded on the company's only launchpad in Florida — putting the rocket out of commission likely until next year.

The Space Force has said it's open to eventually using SpaceX's Starship. But there are engineering challenges to overcome because Starship is designed for "flat stack" satellites such as Starlink, while most military satellites are designed for a larger cargo bay. And it's unclear when SpaceX will have the capacity to meet the Pentagon's needs, given its plans to use Starship to build out orbital data-centers and other company priorities.

Other newer companies may have some solutions. Stoke Space, Relativity and Rocket Lab are all working on medium-lift rockets that could help meet the military's needs. But none of those companies has flown successful test flights of their new vehicles, meaning it could take years for them to start launching reliably and frequently.

Zarybnisky remained optimistic that Blue Origin and ULA will work through their technical problems and that new competitors will get up and running in time.

"We're excited to see where those new providers come on board and are able to support the national security base launches that we need," he said.

It's not just the Pentagon feeling the pinch. The move to decommission the Falcon 9 rocket and focus on Starship has sent the entire space industry into panic — especially commercial satellite builders. Some of those firms have been unable to secure Falcon 9 flights after 2028.

The Space Force didn't disclose a set date for when it will fly its last Falcon mission, but Zarybnisky said the service is "actively talking to SpaceX and understanding where the spacecraft programs are, where they are in their build and test cycle. The end date will really be driven by the spacecraft customers that we have launch service contracts for already."

It's unclear what happens after the Space Force runs through that batch of missions. An industry representative warned that the service is unprepared to deal with the crisis coming its way as demand for rockets increases across the space industry.

New rocket companies can't bid on a Space Force launch until they've demonstrated the ability to successfully fly, part of an effort to keep vaporware companies from winning government business. But commercial satellite companies are not restricted in the same way and have been buying up early launches on rockets that haven't even flown yet. This puts more pressure on the Space Force to find future launches.

The launch crunch "probably requires the Space Force to get creative and figure out a way to start buying capacity now before it's too late," the representative said.

Another person familiar with the issue said that Space Force officials need to work with Congress to "fundamentally rethink" how the military acquires launch.

"The Space Force needs to be allowed to reserve multiple launches at a time, much further out into the 2030s, for vehicles that have yet to fly," the person said. "Yes, it's taking on more risk … [but] if it waits for new rockets to prove themselves, it may find they're already sold out."

This story originally appeared on POLITICO and is courtesy of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces, and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet, and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms.

• Tesla's Full Self-Driving feature still requires drivers to pay attention to the road.
• During its Q3 earnings call, the company said unsupervised FSD for personal cars is coming in 2027.
• The catch? Your Tesla must remain within the company's Robotaxi geofences.

When I reviewed Tesla's Full Self-Driving software in January, I hailed it as an "impressive" driver-assistance feature that left me wanting more.

I dreamed of being able to flip the autonomous driving system on whenever I make my routine 400-mile trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles — kick my feet up, listen to music, and ideally fall asleep without having to supervise the road.

That's been part of Tesla's ultimate pitch for the future. "With autonomy, you get your time back," Elon Musk has said.

And the pitch may soon come true. Just don't expect to make long self-driven road trips quite yet.

On Wednesday, during Tesla's Q3 earnings call, Ashok Elluswamy, the company's VP of AI, painted a more modest picture of what FSD unsupervised will look like for a personal car — at least at first.

Elluswamy said unsupervised FSD is coming "somewhere around Q2 next year" for privately owned Teslas, with the rollout of FSD V15.

The caveat is that it will only be operable in areas where Tesla already operates its Robotaxi service, which represents a small fraction of square miles for the total number of Teslas on US roads.

The Robotaxi platform is available in parts of seven metropolitan regions: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In the Bay Area, all Tesla robotaxis are supervised by a human operator.

"The only additional requirement is to make sure that, for example, the customer Model Ys can be part of the geofences and the fleet management that Tesla has for it to be fully autonomous," Elluswamy said.

In other words, your Tesla may be able to drive itself, but only if you're within the zones where Tesla Robotaxi is operating. If you're in Austin, that could cover about 260 square miles of the city, excluding high-speed roadways.

That's similar to what other aspiring self-driving car companies have pitched.

Tensor, a San Jose-based automaker, aims to sell a luxury sedan that it says can drive itself. However, the self-driving feature will only operate within restricted geofences, the company told Business Insider.

Tesla didn't say why it needs to limit the release of unsupervised FSD to geofences at first, although there are likely questions about liability that the company will have to address once it declares, Yes, our technology now lets you take your eyes off the road.

Autonomy is a difficult problem to solve after all. During the call, Elluswamy shut down the idea that competitors could catch up to Tesla's FSD.

"When they get in the long tail of this problem — it's so long that people don't realize — anyone with a sane mind should not attempt to solve this problem," he said. "It's so difficult."

• Tesla posted footage of its robotaxi driving without a safety driver ahead of its Q3 earnings call.
• Two of the clips included footage of a Waymo robotaxi and Avride encroaching on Tesla's path.
• The clips showed the Tesla Robotaxi slowing down.

Tesla took some subtle jabs at its robotaxi competitors ahead of its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

On a website Tesla created for its robotaxi safety report, the company uploaded clips of its self-driving cars maneuvering in real-world conditions without a driver behind the wheel. Obstacles and hazards included stormy weather, a pedestrian crossing at a green light, stray pets, and rival robotaxis getting in the way.

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI, also posted the video on X, calling it "Robotaxi B-roll."

At around the 1:44 mark of Elluswamy's post, the video shows a robotaxi coming to a complete stop in its own lane as a Waymo makes a wider-than-usual right turn. The Waymo can be seen encroaching into Tesla's lane before it returns to its own path.

A Waymo spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

In another short clip, the Tesla robotaxi is seen driving at night, braking for an Avride car that pulled up from the right, a little too far into the Tesla's path.

Avride is a robotaxi company that offers robotaxi rides through Uber in Dallas and is testing rides with a safety driver behind the wheel in Austin.

A spokesperson for Avride did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla posted the footage as it seeks to make its case publicly on robotaxi safety. The company began offering a limited number of autonomous rides without an in-car safety monitor in Austin in January.

In the newly posted safety report, Tesla said its robotaxi service has driven 3.3 million miles autonomously — relatively small compared to Waymo's more than 271 million miles driven as of June.

Tesla said during its Q3 earnings call that it will launch unsupervised Cybercabs in Dallas in November.

• Tesla is facing some profitability headwinds.
• Its operating income fell 56% year over year as AI and research and development costs climbed.
• The company is still in the green, and it surprised earlier this month by delivering 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter.

Tesla is still selling plenty of cars. Making the same amount of money on them is getting harder.

On Wednesday, the Elon Musk-led automaker reported that its operating income fell 56% year over year to $718 million in the third quarter — below Wall Street's estimates of $746.3 million — while overall revenue of $28.05 billion came in a smidge below analysts' estimates.

Tesla pointed to higher operating expenses tied to its AI efforts, or "SI"/"Super Intelligence" as Trump prefers, and other R&D projects. Lower regulatory credit revenue and weaker energy storage gross profit also weighed on profitability, while lower vehicle prices hurt revenue.

"While we continue to execute on innovations to reduce the cost of manufacturing and operations, over time, we expect our hardware-related profits to be accompanied by an acceleration of SI, software and fleet-based profits," the company reported.

It's not all bad news for Tesla's profits. The company is still solidly in the green, and it beat on the bottom line. Tesla reported 48 cents in adjusted earnings per share, above the 44-cent analyst consensus estimate. Free cash flow of $1.5 billion was also a surprise after Wall Street had expected negative free cash flow of $4.92 billion.

The automaker also sees areas of profit growth in its future: autonomy subscriptions are trending up, and Tesla said it's offering the right, region-specific product mixes.

During the earnings call, Tesla's chief financial officer, Vaibhav Taneja, said the company is experiencing its "highest backlog" of vehicles in four years. The company, he said, is trying to increase vehicle production.

He also added that Tesla has secured $30 billion of borrowing to support expected capital expenditures, but the company doesn't expect to "make any draws under any of the new facilities in this calendar year."

"The main takeaway is that Tesla's surprisingly positive cash flow quarter did not come from stronger profits," Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, said after the report.

"Added to the equation is the fact that Tesla's AI spending remains broadly inefficient, with research costs up nearly 70% and operating margins down to just 2.6%, while at SpaceX AI is already one of the biggest sources of revenue," the analyst added.

The new quarter has already made waves

The Tesla story continues to play out in real time, and it's had a busy month since the fourth quarter kicked off in October.

On Tuesday, during SpaceX's earnings call, Musk said that Tesla and SpaceX had each formed committees to explore a potential merger. Both companies are helmed by Musk — and he owns billions of dollars in stock of each.

Anticipation of the potential mega-merger has been building around the companies for much of 2026, and has only increased since SpaceX went public. Musk said he was not included in those committees and that calling the merger a foregone conclusion "would be overstating it."

It also came less than a week after Tesla held its high-flying demo for the Roadster. The sports car performed a gymnastics routine, including briefly jumping into the air and twirling over a lineup of other Tesla vehicles.

It came nine years after Tesla first promised to relaunch the Roadster. Musk first showed off a prototype of the vehicle in 2017 and predicted a 2020 product launch.

• GM says it's keeping humans in its OnStar call centers to help with emergencies.
• It comes as OnStar is getting a fresh makeover, complete with AI.
• "The stakes are too high," an exec told BI about the human-in-the-loop.

GM is giving OnStar an AI overhaul. The automaker says it is not coming for the person who answers when your airbags deploy.

On Wednesday, during the company's tech conference, GM Forward, Ed Nightingale, GM's vice president of digital products, told Business Insider that the automaker would continue to use human OnStar staffers on emergency calls to contact first responders.

"That's something that isn't changing," Nightingale said. "We feel that, when it comes to a crash or a problem being solved, they want to make sure that there's a human in the loop. The stakes are too high."

After publication, a GM spokesperson told Business Insider that OnStar Advisors "aren't going away" and will remain a core part of the OnStar experience.

Humans-in-the-loop are a notable constraint on GM's AI ambitions compared to other software companies. Other AI-enabled companies, such as SpaceX, have recently highlighted how few customer calls are routed to humans.

GM said that keeping people involved in complex or sensitive situations is an intentional part of its AI strategy. Technology handles more routine interactions, while humans take the call during an emergency.

It also comes as the company gives OnStar — its 30-year-old in-car emergency service — a much bigger job.

GM showed off OnStar AI on Wednesday. It's a new voice assistant designed to understand a vehicle and the driver using it. The automaker said it can answer questions about vehicle alerts, control some functions, plan routes around bad weather, and offer more context-aware suggestions, including from information through a driver's digital calendar.

The assistant will arrive first on the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq via an over-the-air update in the coming months, GM said. Other vehicles will follow.

GM also plans to unify its brand-specific mobile apps under the OnStar AI name next summer.

Onstage, Sterling Anderson, GM's chief product officer, said the company was turning the 30-year-old service into "an intelligent platform."

The shift is part of a large bet from GM.

GM is focusing heavily on its tech capabilities. On recent earnings calls, CEO Mary Barra has highlighted GM's subscription products. Anderson previously told Business Insider about how AI has allowed the company to cut product development time in half, starting with the GMC Hummer EV, which only took 20 months of development. Industry-average product development is typically around 5 years.

On Wednesday, the company also highlighted the development of its hands-off, eyes-off self-driving features, set to make their debut in the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028.

GM still has to persuade drivers that the new tools are valuable enough to use — and, in some cases, pay for.

Nightingale said subscriptions only retain customers when drivers can see the benefit.

Work at GM? We want to hear from you. Contact Ben Shimkus at bshimkus@insider.com or Signal at bshimkus.41. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device.

• Alaska Air Group announced new premium economy seating on Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines flights.
• The large recliners will have leg and calf rests, 38 inches of pitch, and upgraded dining.
• It also announced upgraded business-class and lie-flat seats on some Boeing 737 Max 10s.

Alaska Air Group is the latest US air carrier to shore up its premium seating offerings — part of an industry-wide boom to cater to passengers who will pay more for premium perks.

In September, Alaska Air Group, which operates Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, unveiled a new premium economy cabin called "Premium Reserve" and upgraded business-class suites. The new cabins are planned for long-haul international flights and select domestic routes.

Since acquiring Hawaiian for nearly $2 billion in 2024, Alaska has been pursuing its "Alaska Accelerate" plan to expand its premium offerings and international presence from its Seattle hub, including two new routes to Japan and Tahiti starting in 2027.

With its upgrades and expansion, Alaska increasingly looks like a major global carrier rather than the largely domestic airline it was once known as.

"We believe premium is more than a seat," Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Air Group, said in a statement. "It's how guests feel from the moment they book their trip to the moment they arrive at the airport, to when they're in the air with us."

A new premium cabin and lie-flat seats on 737 Max 10s

Available to book on both airlines starting next summer, Alaska and Hawaiian's new premium economy will feature wide reclining seats with leg and calf rests and a pitch — or the distance from one seat to the seat in front of it — of 38 inches.

It will also include a 16-inch, Bluetooth-capable screen, outlets and USB-C charging ports, and upgraded in-flight dining menus.

Alaska already offers a premium-economy-like cabin called Premium Class, but the cabin type will be a first for Hawaiian.

Premium Reserve will be available on Alaska's 787 and select 737 Max 10 aircraft, as well as Hawaiian's A330 fleet, with flights beginning in 2028. Alaska doesn't yet have the Max 10, which was nearing the finish line for certification after years of delays tied to safety and quality concerns. But CNBC reported on Monday that regulators have again delayed certification due to a newly discovered software issue.

Beyond premium economy, lie-flat business class — called "Aurora Suites" on Alaska and "Leihōkū Suites" on Hawaiian to retain each airline's distinct branding — has gotten a refresh.

Hawaiian's Leihōkū Suite, its 787 business-class product, serves select routes to Asia, Oceania, and North America. It will be added to the A330 and feature "hotel-quality bedding and enhanced onboard amenities."

Alaska's Aurora Suites will be deployed on all 787 Dreamliners and include upgraded upholstery and materials. Both suites will have sliding doors, Bluetooth, big in-flight screens, and access to airport lounges.

Aurora will also be installed on 737 Max 10 planes flying select transcontinental routes, joining the increasing number of airline narrowbody planes with lie-flat premium seats.

These premium cabins won't be cheap. A round-trip business-class flight from Seattle to Tokyo in mid-March is about $6,500 on Alaska; the same seat to London is about $5,300. Basic economy is about one-fifth of each of those business-class fares.

Hawaiian Airlines' fleet of A330s will also offer new nonstop flights from Seattle to Osaka, Japan, and Papeete, Tahiti, beginning in May and June 2027, respectively. Introductory round-trip Main Cabin fares will start at $1,199 to Osaka and $999 to Papeete; the planes will have Hawaiian's existing business-class product until the fleet's new interiors begin rolling out in 2028.

Alaska is facing fierce competition. It's up against legacy US carriers with already massive widebody fleets, extensive international networks, and well-established premium products.

The airline knows it's playing catch-up.

"I think where you're seeing strength with the legacy carriers is in the premium space and in the international space," Minicucci said in an April 2026 earnings call. "And if you look at our strategy under Alaska Accelerate, that's exactly where we're leaning into."

Courting passengers who pay a premium

In post-COVID air travel, US airlines are moving away from packing as many people as possible into economy to increase revenue. Instead, they are pivoting toward customers who will spend more on premium travel experiences, such as airline lounges and higher-tier in-flight amenities.

A McKinsey analysis published in June found that on transatlantic wide-body flights, business-class cabins are earning almost as much as economy cabins, even though they carry far fewer passengers.

That premium demand has remained despite rising oil prices and soaring airfares amid the war in Iran, partly buoyed by continued spending from more affluent travelers.

"The folks who are more oriented towards purchasing into our premium cabins have been super resilient," Minicucci said in a 2025 earnings call.

United Airlines' director of onboard products and partnerships, Peter Wolkowski, told Business Insider during the UK's Farnborough Airshow in July that premium economy is its fastest-growing cabin on the company's 787 fleet.

In 2025, Delta's premium revenue increased 7% year-over-year, while its main cabin revenue decreased. On an earnings call in October 2025, then-Delta president Glen Hauenstein predicted that premium revenue was expected to exceed Main Cabin revenue by 2027.

"When you think about what's different and what's changed over the last 10 or 15 years, the premium products used to be loss leaders, and now they're the highest-margin products," he said.

• Tesla accounted for more than half of US electric-vehicle sales in the third quarter.
• Its quarterly sales increase exceeded the entire market's gain, Cox estimates show.
• High gas prices are helping EVs compete, though sales remain below last year's levels.

Tesla is taking a bigger slice of America's electric-vehicle market as high gas prices give drivers another reason to consider ditching the pump.

The company sold an estimated 144,094 vehicles in the US in the third quarter, up from 124,800 in the previous three months, according to Cox Automotive's latest sales report.

That increase was bigger than the gain for the rest of the US EV market. Put another way: Tesla drove the recovery. Everyone else, taken together, went backward.

The figures offer a new twist on the EV comeback I wrote about in July. Back then, sales had finally improved after the slump that followed the end of federal incentives in the US. Several manufacturers were benefiting, but only those with the fortitude to stick with EVs after federal government support waned.

While recovery continued in the third quarter, it became more dependent on Tesla.

Americans bought 262,649 new EVs during the period, about 6% more than in the second quarter. Sales outside Tesla fell roughly 3%, based on a comparison of Cox's latest counts with its second-quarter report.

Tesla's own sales rose about 15% from the second quarter. It supplied 54% of the country's new EVs in the third quarter, extending its lead from the previous period.

High gas prices help make the case for going electric, according to Cox.

"With gas prices well above $4 a gallon, electric vehicles look better than ever," Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox's director of Industry Insights, said in the company's analysis of the quarter.

Expensive gasoline and diesel make running a conventional vehicle more painful. For drivers who can charge cheaply, particularly at home, an EV offers a valuable alternative to repeated trips to the pump.

There's an important caveat to the comeback story: Sales are improving from a depressed level.

Total US EV sales were down almost 40% from a year earlier. Last year's third quarter was unusually strong because buyers rushed to claim federal incentives before they disappeared.

Tesla's sales were down about 20% against that comparison. The company remains heavily dependent on two vehicles. The Model Y and Model 3 accounted for roughly 97% of its US sales in the latest quarter.

The Cybertruck sold over 4,300 units, and Tesla has stopped making the Model S and X. (There's a Roadster, though not until 2028).

So Tesla's growing dominance isn't a story of every model flying out of showrooms, or of selling more cars than a year ago.

For now, it is winning a larger share of a smaller market. As Americans return to EV shopping, Tesla is capturing more of their business.

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• SpaceX and Tesla have each established exploratory committees to discuss a possible merger, Elon Musk said.
• Musk, who said he can't participate in the talks, gave the update during Tesla's Q3 earnings call.
• Musk said he thinks a merger is a good idea, but cautioned investors that shareholder approval is "quite a high hurdle."

Houston, we have an update on all that SpaceX-Tesla merger chatter.

During SpaceX's Tuesday earnings call, Elon Musk said both of the companies had created "special committees of independent directors" to discuss a potential merger.

Musk, who helms both companies and owns billions of dollars in stock of each, said he can't be part of those exploratory groups.

"Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes," he said on the call. "But at the end of the day, the shareholders have to be supportive of this, and particularly on the Tesla side, we will need a 50% vote of all shares, not just those who vote, but of all shareholders."

He said clearing that bar would be "quite a high hurdle."

It's the most detailed update investors have received yet on the idea of a tie-up, which has been the subject of much chatter since SpaceX went public earlier this year. If the companies ultimately decide to merge, it would further consolidate Musk's business empire, often referred to as Musk Inc.

His businesses have been on a consolidation kick. In 2025, xAI acquired Musk's social media company, X (formerly Twitter), and in February, SpaceX acquired xAI.

Musk also runs the brain-chip startup, Neuralink, and the tunnel-building firm The Boring Company. Both operate independently, but have had business collaborations within Musk Inc.

Tesla and SpaceX's stocks were up in after-hours trading following the news. SpaceX was up around 6.6% and Tesla 1.6%.

Musk sees clear benefits in tying the knot

"I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies as we are pretty much in the superintelligence singularity," Musk said during the call.

SpaceX and Tesla have worked together on a host of projects, including artificial intelligence software, chip design, TeraFab manufacturing efforts, robotics, Starlink satellite connectivity, and SpaceX's ability to launch payloads into orbit, Musk and SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said.

The most recent result of that partnership: On Thursday, Tesla demoed its long-awaited Roadster, which includes a version with SpaceX technology. The high-powered sports car's top trim will include cold-gas thrusters. The car launched, hovered, and flipped in the air during the demo.

While Musk is for the two companies tying the knot, he said investors shouldn't think it's a sure thing.

"I don't think we should necessarily assume that a SpaceX and Tesla merger is a certainty," he added. "That would be overstating it."

• Uber is offering bonuses to some drivers for completing more rides or referring new drivers.
• The bonuses can add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars.
• Uber has used such extra pay in the past to attract drivers to the platform.

Uber is offering ride-hailing drivers something that many haven't seen in years: Big bonuses.

The ride-hailing service is coaxing some drivers to take more rides, offering up to several hundred dollars in "incentive" pay if they complete a set number of rides within a set time period, according to several screenshots of the offers seen by Business Insider.

In one example, a driver was offered $525 if the driver completed 45 trips within a few days. Similar offers involved smaller payouts and fewer trips, but paid out proportional amounts of $10 to $12 per trip.

That's a huge pay bump for many drivers, who make as little as a few dollars per trip, said Sergio Avedian, an Uber driver and senior contributor to the gig-driver-advocacy blog and YouTube channel The Rideshare Guy.

The bonuses might also be Uber's attempt to get more drivers on the road to meet rider demand during busy periods like Halloween and the holiday travel season, Avedian said.

"This may tell the story that they need supply," he said. "They're saying that we need to get everybody out there."

Some drivers have also gotten messages from Uber encouraging them to refer friends to sign up as drivers or get those who haven't driven in a couple of years back on the app, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider. Payment for those referrals can reach up to $1,225.

The payments are a potential boon to Uber drivers, whose pay can vary significantly between cities.

Uber drivers have to cover their own costs, such as car maintenance, since they are independent contractors, not full-time employees. Rising gas prices have eaten into drivers' pay after the US and Israel started a war with Iran earlier this year.

An Uber spokesperson did not provide details on why the company is offering the payments.

Uber has used targeted incentive payments before.

In 2021, demand for rides began to outpace the number of available drivers after many had stopped driving during the pandemic.

In response, the company decided "to invest fast and to invest aggressively in attracting drivers back to Uber" and increased the number of active drivers on the app by 65% between January and November that year, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on an earnings call at the time. Uber later pulled back on the extra pay.

"When we were coming out of the pandemic, they were short tons of drivers," said Avedian, who was driving for Uber at the time. "It was crazy bonuses out there."

More recently, riders have been paying more per mile and waiting longer for their rides to show up, according to a study published last month.

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Want to buy a RAV4? Good luck finding one!
• I drove the longtime favorite vehicle for a week. It's boringly good — and that's a huge compliment.
• Toyota is ramping up its electric powertrains. The new RAV4 is the next great example.

Think of that awkward highway moment: You've accidentally cut someone off or made an obvious driving mistake. You wish you could sink into automotive oblivion before the other driver gets a good look at you.

The Toyota RAV4 is perfect for that situation.

The crossover SUV is good at nearly everything — efficient, comfortable, reasonably priced, and backed by Toyota's reputation for reliability — while wrapped in a package that looks like pretty much every other grocery getter on the road.

I spent a week and about 200 miles in a 2026 RAV4 Limited AWD, driving through New York City and the Catskills region. The fully-loaded tester stickered at $46,883.

I found the RAV4 to be aggressively competent. Its performance won't get your adrenaline pumping, and its looks won't turn many heads. Instead, it'll get occupants comfortably from point A to point B while barely sipping fuel.

And consumers can't get enough of that.

RAV4 gets a facelift — and some fresh electric motivation

The RAV4, America's third-best-selling vehicle last year, is fresh out of the design studio.

It's the sixth generation of the SUV: Unlike its curvier predecessors, it's squared off and upright. The front and rear are nearly perpendicular to the ground and are finished off with LED head and taillights.

The more consequential change is under the hood.

For 2026, Toyota killed the gas-only RAV4. Every version now comes with a battery in the powertrain; the only remaining choice for RAV4 hopefuls is between a conventional hybrid and a pricier plug-in hybrid.

That puts one of America's most popular vehicles squarely behind the hybrid strategy Toyota has spent years defending.

While rivals poured billions into all-electric lineups, Toyota kept betting that hybrids — which combine a gas engine with electric motors and a small battery that recharges as you drive — would be easier for mainstream buyers to adopt.

The RAV4 isn't Toyota's first bestseller going hybrid-only. The Camry sedan made the switch for 2025, and the Sienna minivan has been hybrid-only since 2021.

RAV4 is the most consequential expression of that hybrid bet. And the execution hits the nail on the head.

The base model is roughly $32,000 — similar to gas-powered competitors like the Honda CR-V or the Nissan Rogue.

Gas mileage is exceptional. During my test, I averaged 47 mpg, and saw 50-plus mpg on some shorter trips.

There are trade-offs. The RAV4 feels sprightly off the line, but ask for more power at highway speeds, and the gas engine starts working noticeably harder. The steering is vague, the engine can drone, and the transition between electric and gas power is still more obvious than I'd like.

Still, Toyota gets the boring stuff right. The RAV4 gets a smartly layered front-seat organization system, a clean gauge cluster, and easy-to-understand digital climate controls.

Buyers who want something faster, flashier, or fully electric have plenty of other options — including elsewhere in Toyota's own showroom. My Limited tester also proved you don't need to spend nearly $47,000 to get what makes the RAV4 appealing (the heads-up display, for example, really wasn't necessary).

The RAV4's trick is simpler: It doesn't require any major life changes from its owner. Shoppers don't have to install a charger, rethink a road trip, or learn a radically different car. They can just drive it — and, in my case, get 47 mpg.

Wow, it's popular

That success does create a problem: Buyers can't get enough of the RAV4, especially as high gas prices add to already-strong hybrid demand.

Right now, a new RAV4 spends an average of just 17 days on a dealership lot, per CarGurus data shared with Business Insider. The industry average is above 70 days.

Kevin Roberts, director of economic and market intelligence at CarGurus, said the situation reminds him of the chip shortage era, when limited inventory sent shoppers hunting through dealership lots and helped push car prices higher.

"We're way out of the chip shortage now, so it's a really kind of unique environment," he said.

That scarcity is creating another oddity. CarGurus found that average used prices for 2026 RAV4s were actually running above the starting prices of equivalent new trims. Even 2025 RAV4s were retaining about 99% of that value.

His advice for shoppers: "Dust off some of the chip shortage playbook" by expanding their search radius, being flexible about options, or ordering a vehicle if they aren't in a rush.

• This summer, I took a four-day Amtrak trip with my spouse, and worked remotely the entire journey.
• I loved working in the café car while taking in views of the Mississippi River and the Great Plains.
• Even though the internet wasn't reliable, it was a great experience that I can't wait to do again.

This summer, my spouse and I decided to take the longest Amtrak trip we've ever taken — three trains from Washington, DC, to Vancouver over four days.

My partner, who is a teacher, had a break between the school year and the summer program, so this adventure was the perfect excuse to relax, disconnect from the world, and enjoy the train's views. That was, unfortunately, not the case for me.

Since I have an office job with limited vacation time, I decided I would work remotely throughout the entire trip. Even though I had my boss's permission to work on the train and had packed all my essentials, I still wondered how successful this endeavor would be.

Turns out, it was more challenging than I anticipated, but still worth the hassle.

I made sure to prepare for any WiFi outages and pack accordingly.

Before the trip, I researched whether the trains would have WiFi, but found that it could vary by route.

Since I wasn't sure how reliable my internet options would be on board, I made sure to download the most important documents onto my computer instead of just relying on the cloud. This way, even if there was an unstable connection, I'd still be able to access them.

Additionally, I made sure to have my phone's hotspot at the ready for whenever there wasn't WiFi on the train.

And just as an extra precaution, I made a point of scheduling any important calls for either before or after our train rides, so that I wouldn't risk losing signal while speaking with my team.

To prevent any other hiccups, I packed everything I could think of that I might need: my work laptop, my portable monitor, all the appropriate cords and chargers, and my planner for anything I needed to do on paper.

The roomette's privacy was great, but it didn't have enough outlets.

On two of our three train rides, we booked a roomette, a small bedroom with two seats facing each other that would convert into bunks at night.

The internet was spotty in there, but I was still able to wrap up the last emails of the day without any problems.

On the first train ride from DC to Chicago, the roomette had two power outlets, but on our journey from Chicago to Seattle, it had only one — forcing my spouse and me to take turns charging our devices.

I loved working in the café car.

Sometimes, the roomette felt pretty cramped, so I took my work setup to the café car as often as I could.

Not only was there plenty of room for me to spread out with my laptop and second screen, but I could also witness amazing views — like the Mississippi River or the Great Plains — from the window.

However, since there weren't any power outlets in the café car, I was only able to be productive for as long as my computer and phone batteries lasted, which was about 2 hours. Then, once everything had run out of power, I had to return to the roomette and plug everything in, which disrupted my workflow.

I didn't think about how my hotspot wouldn't be reliable in rural areas.

Since there was only stable WiFi on one of our three trains, I was relying heavily on my hotspot for most of the trip. But by the third day, the cellular signal kept getting spotty as we entered more rural areas of the country, making my hotspot less reliable.

Because of the weak connection, I couldn't access my team's folders, so I had to email my boss a report instead of uploading it to SharePoint.

I panicked a little, since we're not supposed to save documents directly to our computers, but this was my only option without a consistent signal.

When we sat in coach, I could barely get any work done.

For the last leg of our trip from Seattle to Vancouver, we sat in coach instead of reserving a roomette.

We were able to sit at a small table, but it was too cramped to take out my laptop, and there wasn't any space to work in my seat either. This was the only portion of the trip where it was impossible to do any work, and it really made me miss my roomette.

Even though working on the train was challenging, the station lounges were perfect.

Whenever we had train delays, I would work at the Amtrak stations, which were great places to be productive.

The station in DC had a place to stash our suitcases, decent WiFi, and various tables and chairs. The one in Chicago was also a great size, was well-lit, and had a strong internet connection and plenty of seating.

Similarly, the upper level of the Amtrak station in Seattle had a small art gallery and sitting area — a perfectly comfortable space for me to do my job.

It wasn't the easiest way to work, but I'd do it again.

Although working on these trains wasn't always smooth, I still had a great experience and would definitely love to do it again.

Next time, though, I would pack a power bank to charge my phone and monitor without needing an outlet, and overprepare for a lack of WiFi.

Overall, even though working remotely on Amtrak trains had its challenges, I loved the stunning views and the chance to see new sights rather than just sitting at my desk.

Business Insider reached out to Amtrak for comment.

• Matthew Guerrero says gas costs eat up much of his pay as an Uber driver in Southern California.
• He prioritizes giving rides to weekend barhoppers who tend to tip well, he said.
• Uber says that one driver's experience isn't representative of the broader platform.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matthew Guerrero, a 41-year-old Uber driver in Southern California. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I worked as a firefighter for about four years before I got injured on the job.

I've been seeking a workers' comp settlement that should be settled soon. In the meantime, my lawyer said that I could start working again. I needed a job really quickly, especially with three kids, so I started driving with Uber.

I've been driving with Uber for about five weeks. So far, it hasn't been very successful. For example, one week, I made $600 working 30 hours. To make that, I spent about $300 in gas driving my SUV.

Then, I have to put between 20% and 30% of what's left aside for taxes. That comes out to about $210 for 30 hours of work. That doesn't even include wear and tear on my car. I don't understand how anybody can do this long-term. It's not sustainable.

The pay is better if you drive in Los Angeles or San Diego. But I'm in Riverside County, and the pay seems to be lower here.

To get better-paying rides, you have to be strategic. Sometimes, I try to get a ride with a passenger who's headed to an airport in one of the big cities. Then, I stay there all day and take rides. That's not always feasible, though.

When I started with Uber, I realized that there were a lot of rides that involved taking people to morning doctor's appointments. Most of those people didn't tip well, though, and tips are key to making money.

Instead, I like to work Friday and Saturday nights around bars in Temecula. I usually log on around 4 pm and head home around 3 am. The pay is good, and the tips are a lot better than other rides in my area. Sometimes you have to deal with drunk people throwing up, but it's worth it.

I've given some rides to veteran Uber drivers — people who were working on the app back in 2015 and 2016. They said that they used to make better money than I do, and that they quit after they saw pay fall.

That was eye-opening for me. I don't understand how a company like Uber can pay as little as they do.

An Uber spokesperson said drivers in Riverside County, California make "at least $20.28 per engaged hour, plus $0.37 per engaged mile for vehicle expenses, with tips on top of that."

"While this guarantee doesn't cover time spent waiting for trips, it's important context when discussing driver compensation," the spokesperson said. Driver earnings can vary based on when drivers decide to work, where they drive, and rider demand.

"One driver's experience isn't representative of the broader platform," the spokesperson said.

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.