While Marketplace’s Lily Jamali was at CES last week in Las Vegas, she took her first ride on the Vegas Loop, built by Elon Musk’s the Boring Co. In 2013, Musk floated the concept of a hyperloop as a way for people to travel long distances at superfast speeds via pods in vacuum-sealed tubes. The Vegas Loop, as Lily found out, is not that. Developing actual hyperloop technology is hard and costly. Just ask Hyperloop One, a startup that recently shut down after a decade of trying. Lily recently spoke with Bloomberg’s Sarah McBride about Hyperloop One’s demise and what it means for the tech sector’s larger ambition to create hyperloop transport systems.

One consequence of climate change is more frequent and severe droughts. And that has water-stressed communities looking for new sources of drinking water. Today, Marketplace’s climate podcast “How We Survive” and host Amy Scott take a look at how technology can help.

Last year, the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging found that 1 in 3 adults between 50 and 80 years old said they felt isolated. Enter ElliQ, the robot companion created to alleviate loneliness in older adults. She’s programmed to be inquisitive and empathetic and is designed to sit in your home and keep you company. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Dor Skuler, CEO and co-founder of Intuition Robotics, about why he thinks a robot is the right tool to address loneliness.

On the show today, tech investors are among the 100,000-plus people who’ve descended on Las Vegas for this year’s CES. They’re looking for the next big thing in tech and trying to make sure they don’t throw money at the next big dud. Plus, CES showcases the latest in age tech — products meant to make getting older easier, more comfortable and less lonely. But first, artificial intelligence is a big theme at the gathering this year, and the technology is becoming a regular part of people’s work lives. That’s according to a new survey from Tech.co. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Jewel Burks Solomon, managing director at Collab Capital, and Katie Roof, reporter at Bloomberg, for their take on these stories.

We’re a few days into CES now, and amid the demos, launches, meeting, greeting, keynotes and all the walking, there’s one thing on a lot of people’s minds: sleep. So, Marketplace’s Lily Jamali stopped by the National Sleep Foundation’s booth to meet some folks there thinking about sleep. She spoke with Biquan Luo, co-founder and CEO of Lumos Tech, whose company makes what looks like a regular sleep mask, but has embedded LED lights. It’s designed to help recalibrate a user’s sleep schedule.

CES is many things — including a gadget fest and a glimpse into the kind of technology we might be using a month or a decade from now. CES also hosts one of the biggest auto shows on the planet, which is why it’s worth noting that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler aren’t here this year. The United Auto Workers strike ended just a few months ago. General Motors, specifically, is still regrouping after the implosion of its robotaxi startup Cruise. Meanwhile, Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance is under pressure from regulators. The idea of reaching fully autonomous driving — what’s known as Level 5 in the tech sector — is starting to feel out of reach. And maybe that’s OK.

Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke to Trevor Curwin, director of strategic partnerships at Sheeva.AI, an automotive payments company, from the CES floor about the troubles and outlook for the auto industry’s tech ambitions.

This week, more than 100,000 people from around the world — including staff from “Marketplace Tech” — are gathered in Las Vegas to talk tech at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. CES this year features more than 4,000 exhibitors, from small startups to tech giants like Amazon, Intel and Sony. There’s so much to see in so little time, so Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES, about what to watch for at this year’s event.

Last June, President Joe Biden flew to Silicon Valley to tout the massive federal investment in clean energy made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act. For a long time though, women have been largely shut out of clean tech jobs. And an investigation by the nonprofit newsroom The Fuller Project, reported by Kate Gammon, found that last year, women filled just 32% of green energy jobs, up just 1 percentage point since 2008. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with senior editor Aaron Glantz about The Fuller Project’s sometimes graphic findings.

On the show today, shares of Apple touched a seven-week low this week after Barclays downgraded the company. What does the dreaded “sell” rating say about expectations for the Cupertino tech giant? Plus, telling AI from reality might get easier in 2024 thanks to tools that can help with that, and a preview of other personal tech to watch for in the year ahead. But first, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set an ambitious goal at the beginning of 2023 — sell 2 million electric vehicles by the end of the year. The company came pretty close to that sales goal with 1.85 million deliveries; that, compared with 73,000 EVs sold by Ford (if you round up). However, Tesla did fall behind China’s BYD as the EV sales leader for the first time. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal, for her take on these stories.

A former Harvard misinformation researcher named Joan Donovan recently filed a whistleblower complaint against the university. In it, she accused officials of bowing to tech giant Meta when she was ousted from her position following a $500 million donation from the charity of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Harvard denies Donovan’s accusations, but the fallout spotlights the influence Big Tech can have on academic institutions. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, about how industry funding can come with strings attached.