Ten years ago this summer, the Pixar film “WALL-E” came out. It’s about a future where humans have ruined earth’s environment with trash, so they live in space, captive to screens, self-driving chairs, and robot servants. One little robot is left on Earth to clean up the mess, until he finds love — and ends up saving humanity from itself. As part of our summer entertainment series, we’re pondering the critiques and lessons of Wall-E with sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who also happens to be a big fan of the film.  (07/16/2018)

This week, Twitter announced that it’s removing locked accounts from its platform. That’s in an effort to clean up its bot problem. Bots are fake Twitter accounts that spread propaganda and intimidate people. A New York Times story in January suggested that up to 15 percent of Twitter’s user base could be bots. Twitter says it was more like 5 percent. But now, as the company is trying to clean up the bot problem, some investors are worried that Twitter may have fewer human users than they thought. Kevin Roose follows social media for the New York Times. He spoke with Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood about how bots became a business problem for Twitter. 

“Pokemon Go” was one of 2016’s most popular mobile games, but it seemed to lose players just as quickly as it gained them. That may have been due to some technical glitches, but “Pokemon Go” appears to be back. That’s at least in part thanks to some new social features. Those are what got Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood back in the game, and got her thinking about who else is playing “Pokemon Go.”

China is a huge market for electric cars. Tesla is looking for a place to build and sell lots of electric cars. But the U.S. is in a trade war with China and right now there’s about a 40 percent tax on American-made cars being sold in China. That hurts all automakers, but if you’re trying to become the dominant electric car maker in the world you need to sell cars in China. Dan Sperling is the founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. He spoke with Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood about how the Chinese government is changing the market for electric cars. (07/11/2018)

On Monday, Uber announced a partnership with the electric scooter rental company Lime. Uber already owns Jump Bikes, an electric bike startup. Lyft just bought a bike rental company as well. All these moves are about creating one-stop shopping for all kinds of transportation and also about solving a pretty basic problem. The average cab ride is less than three miles and using a car to make that trip is expensive and inefficient, especially in traffic. Hence this new investment trend in what’s being called micro-mobility. Ralph Buehler is a professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech. He spoke with Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood about what he refers to as multimodality.

About 20 percent of Americans have one or more disabilities. And just like the the physical world, the digital one is not always readily accessible. So, how do we make the internet a place everyone can enjoy? It starts with design. Marketplace’s Lizzie O’Leary spoke with Mikey Ilagan, an accessibility specialist with the design firm Think Company, about the challenges people with disabilities face online and how to solve them. 

The computer company Dell is going public again later this year. Just five years ago, Dell did the opposite and went private. Back then, company leaders decided they had to retool in order to survive. Making the personal computers that every other kid in your dorm had probably wasn’t going to cut it. Dell and its future are the topic we chose for this week’s Quality Assurance, where we take a second look at a big tech story. Klint Finley is a reporter with Wired and has written about Dell. He spoke with Marketplace’s Lizzie O’Leary about the company’s motivations for going private in the first place.

Robots have a long sci-fi history with humans in space. Now the International Space Station is getting a robotic assistant of its own: CIMON. Short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion, it arrived on the International Space Station on the back of a SpaceX rocket on Monday and looks like a floating soccer ball with a digital face. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Matthias Biniok of IBM, one of CIMON’s designers, about how the robot will help astronauts aboard the ISS.  

The Federal Communications Commission didn’t used to get so much attention. But the five-person commission that was mostly known for regulating TV and radio is now essentially in charge of managing how the internet works in the United States, and what used to be wonky policy discussions about net neutrality and broadband subsidies have gotten a lot more political. Back in April, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced she was leaving after serving for nine years. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke to her in May, and asked her why she decided to step down when she did.