Hello ghouls and goblins, and welcome to this Halloween weekend edition of Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s weekly tech digest in newsletter form. For our U.S.-based readers (and this reporter), it’s a time for mid-autumn joy: time-tested traditions like pumpkin carving, costumes, and apple picking. May we all make the most of it.
In this edition of WiR, we cover the suspension of Cruise’s robotaxi permit by the California DMV, spending on virtual reality, the Apple Watch’s best new feature going live, and an e-commerce startup founded by a former PayPal executive who aims to give customers more control over their purchasing data. Elsewhere, we highlight the victims of the latest Okta hack, the Carta CEO trying to avoid bad press, the latest from the FTX test, and Rivian winning the longest off-road competition in the US.
There is a lot to overcome, so let’s not delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already.
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No more cruises: The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise deployment and driverless test permits, ending robotaxi operations by GM’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary in San Francisco. Cruise later announced that it would suspend all of its robotaxi operations, including in Austin, Houston, Phoenix and Miami, to “rebuild public trust.”
Expenses are combined with virtual reality: Intrepid TC editor Darrell Etherington did his spending at Concur using Meta’s latest headset, the Quest 3. So how did it go? Concur “still sucks a lot in VR,” Darrell writes, but surprisingly, Concur doesn’t suck any more than it does in more conventional computing environments, and in fact enjoyed doing most of the “regular computer” stuff on Quest 3.
Double tap that: With this week’s watchOS 10.1 drop, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 owners now have access to one of the most interesting features in smartwatches. Double Tap, which adds gesture-based interactions by double-tapping your index finger and thumb, is a smart new way to interact with your wearable device when your other hand is busy, Brian writes.
Sell your way: Mary Ann writes about I own my data (IOMD), a startup founded by a former PayPal executive that aims to eliminate a tedious step for customers: creating an account every time they buy something from an online store. With IOMD, all of a user’s private information, such as previous purchases, cards, addresses, and preferences, is stored on their own device, so transactions can be completed instantly with a click, tap, or tap anywhere. the Web.
The consequences of the Okta hack: Networking and security giant Cloudflare and password manager maker 1Password said hackers briefly attacked their systems following a recent breach of Okta’s support unit. Both Cloudflare and 1Password said their intrusions were related to the hack of Okta, the identity and access management platform, but that the incidents did not affect customer systems or user data.
Letter strikes back: In an attempt to do damage control, Henry Ward, CEO of securities management startup Carta, sent an email to his clients this week telling them that if they are concerned about “negative press” related to the company, they should read a publication recent on Medium of his. In it mailWard describes conversations he has had with Carta employees about numerous stories surrounding the company, including stories about lawsuits surrounding sexual abuse allegations by executives, a toxic “boys club culture”” and indecent exposure, among other things.
FTX Executives Likely to Escape Jail: Gary Wang, co-founder and CTO of failed crypto exchange FTX; Caroline Ellison, CEO of FTX sister company Alameda; and Nishad Singh, head of engineering at FTX, pleaded guilty to the charges after the exchange and the dramatic fall of Alameda in November 2022. But a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), speaking to blockchain reporter TechCrunch’s Jacquelyn Melinek says Ellison, Wang and Singh likely won’t go to jail, as they have cooperated as witnesses.
Rivian comes out ahead: In a victory for Rivian, the Amazon-backed startup’s R1T is the first electric vehicle to win the longest off-road competition in the US, the Rebelle Rally. The race, now in its eighth year, requires teams to complete a 2,120 kilometer course using only paper maps, compasses and plotters, Kirsten writes.
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Looking for background listening material while you make costume changes, paint pumpkins, and restock the candy jar? TechCrunch has you covered, as always.
In Equity, the team covered some of the week’s deals, including news from I Own My Data and AgentSync. Other notable topics included Carta’s communications problem, Cruise’s recent driverless taxi hurdle (and why Waymo appears to be winning), and notes on recent earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft.
Found spoke with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics, a Norwegian company that has created a data platform that powers tools and products for sustainable risk management. His models predict the path of floods, allowing them to predict and map the resulting damage.
AND Chain reaction interviewed Josh Naftalis, partner at the law firm Pallas Partners. Naftalis is an experienced attorney representing companies, boards of directors and executives in white collar criminal defense cases, regulatory compliance matters, internal investigations, crisis management and more.
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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys, which you’ll find out if you’re already a subscriber. If not, consider registering. Here are some highlights from this week:
Spam gets worse: Haje writes about how ai-powered tools are making sales emails, phishing, and spam worse for all of us, particularly tools that tap into social media to create a picture of what might be happening in people’s lives. of its objectives.
ai-powered ads: Alex and Anna write that big tech companies with deep reach have been raking in a lot of money on advertising lately, particularly those with ai skills, which has further strengthened their ability to attract advertising dollars.
Seed deals get expensive: Why are seed deals so expensive nowadays? Alex writes that rapid growth is to blame; Late-stage deals are becoming rarer and minor and cheaper today, on the contrary.
