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Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 2 No. 517.

• The Honda N-One e: is unveiled in Japan and previews a global compact EV
• The diminutive car will measure less than 3,400mm (133.9inches) in length
• A range of 150+ miles is expected and V2L means it can power homes

The production version of the teeny, boxy Honda that wowed crowds at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed has been unveiled and the N-One e: will go on to influence a global, low-cost EV.

Revealed in Japan this week, one of Honda’s smallest-ever electric vehicles will offer over 150 miles (245km) of range on a single charge from its equally small battery packs, while the single electric motor is expected to produce around 63hp.

Designed predominantly for town and city driving, the Japanese version of Honda’s Super EV concept complies with the country’s strict Kei Car rules, which mean it has to measure less than 3,400mm (133.9inches) in length.

It is likely that the European version will sport chunkier bodywork so it isn’t completely dwarfed by the myriad overweight SUVs, but we can expect to see a lot of the features carried over from the Japanese Domestic Market model.

(Image credit: Honda Japan)

The interior, for example, is packed with practical touches, such as rear seats that fold upright or flat to provide ample stowage space for numerous, odd-shaped items.

There are also hard-wearing, easy-to-maintain fabrics and charging points for smartphones.

Honda also says that the N-One e: is capable of one-pedal driving and Vehicle 2 Load (V2L), which means owners can power homes during power outages, or simply top up a power-hungry laptop when on the move.

Small EVs are proving a big hit

(Image credit: Honda Japan)

While it is highly unlikely the N One e: (or whatever the Super EV concept will eventually be called) will make its way to the US market, Honda has said that it plans to introduce a small city EV to Europe and beyond next year.

The company was one of the first to market with a funky, compact EV game thanks to its innovative Honda e. Unfortunately, its cutting-edge styling couldn’t make up for its 100-odd mile real-world range, slow charging speeds and high sticker price.

The Super EV concept comes at a time when battery technology has improved, so the range could be a more usable 170 miles and the asking price will likely be more in line with something like the BYD Dolphin Surf, which starts at £18,650 in the UK (around £25,000 / AU$38,250).

Honda is synonymous with practical, affordable, compact vehicles, with the likes of the Jazz remaining popular among savvy buyers that want reliable, simple transport that laps up short hops without breaking the bank.

While the N One e: is predominantly aimed at the Japanese and Chinese market for now, we expect to see what a more global version will look like at the IAA motor show in Munich later this year.

Honda is also on an EV push in general, with the recent launch of the CUV e: battery-swap electric scooter and the announcement of a full-size electric motorcycle coming soon.

The thread that appears to be running through all of the products is Honda's commitment to excellent engineering solutions and a competitive price point. We might start to see battery-powered models that can compete on price with their gas-powered counterparts.

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• OpenAI has removed the ChatGPT feature, allowing people to search through public conversations with a search engine
• Many users learned too late that enabling the “discoverable” setting could make chats accessible to anyone online
• The decision came after several people saw their sensitive and private information publicized

OpenAI has abruptly shut down a feature in ChatGPT that allowed chats shared publicly to be searchable through Google. Users were unpleasantly surprised to discover that private information shared with ChatGPT was now publicly available as a Google search result.

Dane Stuckey, OpenAI’s Chief Information Security Officer, announced the shutdown on Thursday, with the feature disabled on Friday morning. OpenAI has also begun scrubbing search engine indexes of the previously shared conversations.

OpenAI designed the “Make this link discoverable” checkbox, which they had clicked on, to give more people access to potentially helpful conversations between ChatGPT and different users. In practice, it opened the door to a new kind of digital exposure, where criminal confessions, personal secrets, and corporate practices were just a few keywords away from turning up in a Google Search.

This was not some obscure opt-out setting hidden in a developer console. It was right there in the sharing menu of any ChatGPT conversation users chose to turn into a public link. However, while OpenAI believed the wording was clear about what users were doing, many users apparently did not understand. They thought the link would remain private or unfindable unless explicitly shared.

For the average person using ChatGPT to plan a resignation letter, troubleshoot a relationship, or work on a legal strategy, that’s more than a technical hiccup. It’s a gut check. If you’ve ever shared a link to a conversation, there’s a nonzero chance someone found it by a Google search.

Some of the reported indexed conversations included internal job applicant evaluations, sensitive mental health disclosures, confessions of crime, and proprietary software code. People were talking to ChatGPT as if it were private, but for anyone who toggled that setting, it wasn’t.

We just removed a feature from @ChatGPTapp that allowed users to make their conversations discoverable by search engines, such as Google. This was a short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations. This feature required users to opt-in, first by picking a chat… pic.twitter.com/mGI3lF05UaJuly 31, 2025

Searchable secrets

To OpenAI’s credit, the company pulled the feature quickly. But the fallout raises important questions not just about privacy, but about how much users can reasonably be expected to understand about the tools they’re using. The “discoverable” checkbox didn’t hide behind a wall, but it also didn’t do a great job of communicating the scope of its consequences. It’s one thing to share a link, but indexing it in global search engines indefinitely is something else.

It is fascinating what this says about how users behave with AI. They confide in it, test ideas, vent frustrations, and draft things they’d never type into a search bar. If you’ve ever shared a ChatGPT conversation, it’s worth checking whether that link is still live.

While OpenAI is working with Google and other search engines to purge previously indexed content, search crawlers have long memories. Some content may linger for a while, even if deleted. OpenAI disabled the feature quickly, but the damage may already be done for some users.

Hopefully, the lesson will stick with the public, much like the idea of not deleting embarrassing browser histories has transitioned from a common joke to something only the most clueless person would forget to do. The magic of tools like ChatGPT lies in how they create the illusion of a conversation. But if you forget that it is still an illusion, you might not notice risks like buttons that send your digital heart-to-heart straight to Google.

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Get the weekend off to a gory start.