Mike.

Hi, Lauren. Hey, Mike. I can't believe that I finally get to ask you this during what feels like our millionth remote recording of Gadget Lab due to the pandemic. But are you taking any trips this summer? Yes, I am. I've got two trips on the books, one for June, one for July. Oh, yeah, the July one was the one that I think I was just going to tag along, right?

That's right, yes. I sort of invited myself to Yosemite. Thank you. So is this travel stressing you out at all? A little bit, but I'm mostly looking forward to it. Well, that doesn't surprise me, given what a chill dude you are, but we're going to talk all about summer travel. and how it might be a little more stressful than you anticipated on today's gadget lab.

Hey everyone, welcome to gadget lab. I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. And I'm Michael Kallori. I am a senior editor at Wired.

We're also joined by Wired Transportation writer, Ariane Marshall, who's joining us from Washington, D.C. Ariane, thanks so much for coming on the show again. Thanks for having me. All right, so let's get moving. This week, we're talking about travel. So you've probably noticed that the U.S. is well on its way to opening back up. California, where Mike and I are, just lifted all of its COVID restrictions this week and people are out and about. And, you know, for vaccinated people, that may mean maskless grocery store shopping, going to bars again. And yes, travel. So today in the second half of the

show, we're going to take a look at how transit agencies are trying to lure people back onto public

transit. But first, let's talk about the hot vaxed summer and why your plans for that long-awaited

vacation may come to a screeching halt when you go to book your rental car.

So, Ariane, what is going on with rental cars? Explain this for us, please.

Yeah, so this is kind of a perfect storm here that's gone on. So during the pandemic,

and even a little before the pandemic, some of the big rental car companies in the country that's gone on. So during the pandemic, and even a little before the pandemic, some of the big

rental car companies in the country, that's like Hertz and Avis and those kind of guys,

that no one was needed rental cars during the pandemic. So they sold off a lot of their cars,

and they also didn't buy new cars. And as a result, as business starts to come back, they have a lot fewer cars than they

did, you know, like 15 months ago.

Another problem that's come up now is that there's this semiconductor shortage, which

has really affected a ton of the industries we follow outwired, but specifically the automotive industry.

And so there aren't a ton of new cars for these rental companies to buy.

So once you get to that rental car counter at the airport once you arrive, you may find

that it's kind of about to duke it out with the guy next to you arrive, you may find that it's kind of about to like duke it out

with the guy next to you for, you know, whatever remaining stuff they have at the counter.

I had an experience the other day where I went on to kayak.com.

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