Welcome friends to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch's regular newsletter covering this week's biggest tech happenings.
TikTok's fate in the US appears uncertain after President Joe Biden signed a bill that included a deadline for ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to divest TikTok within nine months or face a ban to distribute it in the US. Ivan writes about how the impact of TikTok bans in other countries could indicate what's to come in America.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the Change Healthcare hack continues. Change, a subsidiary of health insurance giant UnitedHealth, confirmed this week that the ransomware attack targeting it earlier this year resulted in a massive theft of Americans' private medical information, possibly covering “a substantial proportion” of the Americans.
And Tesla's profits fell 55% as the electric vehicle company faces increased pressure from hybrid carmakers. The automaker's growth plan centers on mysterious, cheaper electric vehicles scheduled to launch next year, as well as perhaps a robotaxi. But a Cybertruck recall for faulty accelerator pedals certainly won't help in the meantime.
Many more things happened. We've rounded it all up in this edition of WiR, but first, a reminder to sign up to receive the WiR newsletter in your inbox every Saturday.
News
amazon Grocery Plan: amazon launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription in the U.S. The plan, which costs $9.99 per month for amazon Prime users, includes free deliveries for grocery orders over $35 at amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and other local grocery retailers.
California drones grounded: In more amazon news, the tech giant confirmed it will end Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The central California city of 3,500 was the company's second drone delivery site in the United States after College Station, Texas; amazon did not offer any details about the setback.
Fisker plans layoffs: Fisker says it is planning more layoffs less than two months after cutting 15% of its workforce, as the electric vehicle startup struggles to raise cash to stay alive. Fisker hopes to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days if he can't come up with the money.
Stripe expansion: Among a series of other announcements at its Sessions conference in San Francisco, Stripe said it will decouple payments from the rest of its financial services stack. Since Stripe previously required businesses to be paying customers in order to use any of its other products, that's a big change.
Analysis
Rabbit hands on: Brian writes about the R1, the first device from ai startup R1. The $199 price tag, touchscreen, and original aesthetic from historic design firm Teenage Engineering make the R1 much more affordable than Humane's ai Pin, he concludes.
Lab Grown Diamonds: Pascal, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, claims it can make high-end jewelry affordable using lab-grown diamonds that are chemically and physically similar to natural diamonds but cost one-twentieth the price.
ai Poetry: An experiment called poetry chamber (a real physical camera) combines open source technology with a fun design and artistic vision. Instead of simply capturing images, Poetry Camera organizes thought-provoking ai-generating stanzas based on the images it finds.
Deep, undulating dive: Connie interviewed Parker Conrad, CEO of workforce management startup Rippling, about the company's new $200 million funding round, the new San Francisco lease (the second largest signed in the city this year) and more.
