The approvals technically cover the whole of the Lower Mainland and the skiing destination of Whistler, BC, although that wider permission only allows for drop-offs. The companies only have permission to pick up passengers in Vancouver. Most other cities in the region (including Burnaby and Richmond) expect to offer licenses soon, though, with Surrey being the notable exception.

The city wasn’t in dire straits by going without ridesharing services. As Slate noted, Vancouver has thrived on mass transit as well as car sharing. It’s Car2Go’s biggest membership base in North America. With Car2Go on the way out in late February, however, there will be a significant vacuum that Uber and Lyft might fill. And whether city officials liked it or not, there was a lot of pressure to embrace ridesharing. It not only frustrated those tourists who expected app-based rides, but locals who had trouble getting taxis or public transportation after nights out. Whatever you think of these services, they might fill key gaps in Vancouver’s transportation network.

Notably, Rogers is initially using mid-band wireless frequencies like Sprint’s rather than the fast-but-finicky millimeter wave you see with Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) or T-Mobile’s far-reaching but modest low-band 5G. It’ll start with 2.5GHz airwaves, but will move to low-band 600MHz later in 2020. Eventually, the Canadian provider will use 3.5GHz access as well as sharing tech that allows the use of LTE frequencies for 5G. This deployment won’t be as fast as the fastest American 5G networks. It should, however, offer decent coverage while still producing a meaningful speed advantage over LTE.

There’s still a long way to go. Rogers’ main rivals Bell, Telus and Freedom Mobile haven’t deployed their 5G. It’s also not yet clear how Americans visiting Canada will roam on 5G. Still, it’s a start — and it bodes well for the maturity of 5G as a whole, regardless of where you live.

The eBeaver is a highly modified version of de Havilland’s legendary DCH-2 Beaver, equipped with a 750 horsepower electric motor from Redmond, Washington-based Magnix. Harbour Air announced its partnership with Magnix earlier this year and said it planned to build the world’s first “completely electric commercial seaplane fleet.”

So far, electric planes have failed to make much of a dent. Quite a number have been built, tested and even sold, but none are close to being ready to take paying passengers. “This is real,” Magnix CEO Roei Ganzarski told Fortune. “This is an airline flying their own aircraft.”

Harbour currently has 14 six-passenger DHC-2 Beaver aircraft, many of which are equipped with Pratt & Whitney PT-6A turbine engines that burn about $300 worth of jet A fuel per hour. By contrast, the eBeaver packs enough battery life to fly about 100 miles at a cost of around $10 to $20 worth of electricity.

E-planes have a very limited range compared to ICE-powered models because lithium-ion batteries have less than 5 percent the energy density of gasoline or jet fuel. However, 100 miles is enough for many of the short seaplane hops around Vancouver’s lower mainland. The distance between Vancouver and British Columbia capital Victoria (downtown to downtown) is 58 miles and takes about 30 minutes by plane, while the same trip on a ferry can run over four hours including driving time and waiting. (Also, as your author can attest from brutal experience, the flight is a lot less boring.)

Despite the range challenges, electric planes have big advantages over ICE-powered models. That includes lower maintenance and operating costs, no need for fueling infrastructure (other than chargers) and easier boarding on local routes. “We are proving that low-cost, environmentally friendly, commercial electric air travel can be a reality in the very near future,” said Ganzarski.