The “Hard Fork” team is taking a break this week as we prepare for our upcoming live show in San Francisco.

While we’re away, we’re bringing you a recent episode of “Interesting Times” with Ross Douthat that we really enjoyed.

In this episode, Ross talks with Andrew Miller, writer of the transportation policy newsletter “Changing Lanes” and co-author of the book “The End of Driving.”

Together, they explore the potential benefits of driverless cars — from fewer car crashes to reclaimed time and attention — as well as what could be lost if we don’t have to be in the driver’s seat anymore.

Guest:

• Andrew Miller,  writer of the newsletter “Changing Lanes.”

Additional Reading:

• A full transcript and video of this episode can be found here. 

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This week, we headed to Mountain View, Calif., for the annual developer event Google I/O. We share our reactions to Google’s biggest announcements, including a revamped search box, new agentic tools that compete with OpenClaw and an updated flash model of Gemini that the company says is faster than competitors. Then, we ask Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive, how he’s responding to growing evidence that the public is souring on A.I., what advice he’d give to college grads frightened by the current job market and where the company stands relative to competitors in the A.I. race. Finally, we run through the other big tech headlines of the week in our segment System Update.

Guest:

• Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google.

Additional Reading:

• Google Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 Years
• How Google Is Starting to Win the A.I. Race
• Elon Musk Loses $150 Billion Suit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman
• Before Mass Layoffs, Meta Reassigns 7,000 Workers to Focus on A.I.
• Pope to Launch Encyclical on AI Alongside Anthropic Co-Founder
• Was a Story That Just Won a Literary Prize A.I.-Generated?
• Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the wild frontier of tech.

What’s real? What’s hype? “Hard Fork” is here to help you make sense of it. Tune in every Friday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.