Howdy, ghouls and goblins, and welcome to this Halloween Weekend version of Week in Assessment (WiR), TechCrunch’s weekly tech recap in e-newsletter type. For our U.S.-based readers (and this reporter), ’tis the time for mid-autumn merrymaking — time-tested traditions like jack-o’-lantern carving, costuming and apple choosing. Might all of us take advantage of it.
On this difficulty of WiR, we cowl the California DMV suspending Cruise’s robotaxi allow, doing bills in VR, the Apple Watch’s finest new characteristic going stay and an e-commerce startup based by an ex-PayPal exec that goals to offer clients extra management over their buying information. Elsewhere, we highlight the victims of Okta’s newest hack, Carta’s CEO making an attempt to go off dangerous press, the most recent from the FTX trial and Rivian profitable the longest off-road competitors within the U.S.
It’s rather a lot to get by, so let’s not delay. However first, a reminder to sign up here to obtain WiR in your inbox each Saturday should you haven’t already completed so.
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Cruising no more: The California Division of Motor Automobiles on Tuesday suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits, ending the GM self-driving automobile subsidiary’s robotaxi operations in San Francisco. Subsequently, Cruise introduced that it might pause all of its robotaxi operations, together with in Austin, Houston, Phoenix and Miami, to “rebuild public belief.”
Expensing meets VR: Intrepid TC editor Darrell Etherington did his expensing in Concur utilizing Meta’s newest headset, the Quest 3. So how’d it go? Concur “nonetheless sucks tremendous laborious in VR,” Darrell writes — however surprisingly, Concur didn’t suck any greater than it does in additional standard computing environments, and he really loved doing many of the associated, “regular pc” issues on Quest 3.
Double tap that: With this week’s watchOS 10.1 drop, Apple Watch Collection 9 and Apple Watch Extremely 2 homeowners now have entry to one of many smartwatches’ extra thrilling options. Double Faucet, which provides gesture-based interactions by tapping one’s index finger and thumb collectively twice, is a intelligent new technique to work together with the wearable when your different hand is full, Brian writes.
Retail your way: Mary Ann writes about I Own My Data (IOMD), a startup based by an ex-PayPal exec aiming to get rid of a tedious step for purchasers: creating an account each time you buy one thing from a web-based retailer. With IOMD, all of a person’s non-public info, equivalent to previous purchases, playing cards, addresses and preferences, are saved on their very own system — so transactions could be accomplished immediately with a click on, faucet or contact anyplace on the internet.
Okta hack fallout: Community and safety big Cloudflare and password supervisor maker 1Password mentioned hackers briefly focused their programs following a recent breach of Okta’s support unit. Each Cloudflare and 1Password mentioned their intrusions had been linked to the hack of Okta, the id and entry administration platform, however that the incidents didn’t have an effect on buyer programs or person information.
Carta fights back: In an try at harm management, Henry Ward, the CEO of the fairness administration startup Carta, this week emailed clients, telling them that in the event that they’re involved about “adverse press” tied to the outfit, they need to learn a current Medium submit of his. Within the post, Ward outlines conversations he’s had with Carta staff about quite a few tales surrounding the corporate, together with tales about lawsuits round allegations of sexual abuse on the a part of executives, a toxic “boy’s club culture” and indecent publicity, among other things.
FTX execs likely escape jail: Gary Wang, co-founder and CTO of failed crypto alternate FTX; Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda, FTX’s sister firm; and Nishad Singh, FTX head of engineering, have all pleaded responsible to fees after the alternate and Alameda’s dramatic downfall in November 2022. However an ex-Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutor, talking to TechCrunch’s blockchain reporter Jacquelyn Melinek, says that Ellison, Wang and Singh in all probability received’t get jail time, as they’ve been cooperating witnesses.
Rivian comes out ahead: In a win for Rivian, the Amazon-backed startup’s R1T is the primary EV to win the longest off-road competitors within the U.S., the Rebelle Rally. The race — now in its eighth 12 months — requires groups to finish a 2,120-kilometer course utilizing solely paper maps, compasses and plotters, Kirsten writes.
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Searching for background listening materials as you make costume alterations, paint pumpkins and restock the sweet jar? TechCrunch has you lined — as all the time.
On Equity, the crew lined a couple of offers of the week, together with information from I Personal My Knowledge and AgentSync. Different big-ticket objects included Carta’s comms snafu, the current roadblock for Cruise driverless taxis (and why Waymo seems to be profitable) and notes on Alphabet’s and Microsoft’s current earnings.
Found spoke with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics, a Norwegian firm that’s constructed an information platform that powers instruments and merchandise for sustainable threat administration. Their fashions predict the paths of floodwaters, which permit them to foretell and map the harm that outcomes.
And Chain Reaction interviewed Josh Naftalis, companion at legislation agency Pallas Companions. Naftalis is a longtime lawyer who represents firms, boards and executives in circumstances for white-collar legal protection, regulatory enforcement issues, inside investigations, disaster administration and extra.
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TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which you already know should you’re already a subscriber. In case you’re not, consider signing up. Listed here are a couple of highlights from this week:
Spam gets worse: Haje writes about how AI-powered instruments are making gross sales emails, phishing and spam worse for all of us — significantly instruments that plug into social media to construct an image of what is likely to be taking place of their targets’ lives.
AI-boosted ads: Alex and Anna write that Huge Tech companies with large attain have been raking in large advert bucks, currently — significantly these with AI chops, which has made their means to drag in promoting {dollars} even stronger.
Seed deals become pricey: Why are seed offers so costly lately? Alex writes that fast progress is responsible; late-stage offers have gotten rarer and smaller and cheaper in the present day, conversely.
