TechCrunch

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• Tech doesn’t get more full circle than this
• Mystery rocket makes moonfall
• This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
• Tesla EV deliveries fall nearly 18% in second quarter following China factory shutdown
• A USB standard for satellites? Slingshot 1 takes to orbit to test one
• Ring ring ring ring Solanaphone
• Notch will sell you insurance in case your Instagram gets hacked
• 4 climate tech investors sound off on Supreme Court’s EPA ruling
• Retail investors or guinea pigs?
• YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z makes a YC
• Google will start erasing location data for abortion clinic visits
• Crypto mega hedge fund Three Arrows Capital reportedly files for bankruptcy in New York
• Daily Crunch: Organization urges open source developers to dump GitHub following Copilot launch
• Samsung’s cloud gaming hub brings Xbox, Twitch and more to newest smart TVs
• I want to forget Elon’s dumb $420 tweet, but y’all won’t let me
• Sequoia Capital reportedly raising two funds, and despite slower VC environment, it’s not alone
• The end of a second straight month of layoffs in tech
• Valkyrie CEO says suing US SEC for a spot bitcoin ETF ‘isn’t likely to succeed’
• Behind the scenes of Waymo’s worst automated truck crash
• Reddit acquires natural language processing company MeaningCloud

Tech doesn’t get more full circle than this Posted: 02 Jul 2022 11:47 AM PDT Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week's startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Tech innovation is a cycle, especially in the main character-driven world of early-stage venture capital and copycat nature of startups. The latest proof? Y Combinator this week announced Launch YC, a platform where people can sort accelerator startups by industry, batch and launch date to discover new products. The famed accelerator, which has seeded the likes of Instacart, Coinbase, OpenSea and Dropbox, invites users to vote for newly launched startups "to help them climb up the leaderboard, try out product demos and learn about the founding team," it said in a blog post. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) If it sounds familiar, it's because — in my perspective — Y Combinator is taking a not-so-subtle swipe at Product Hunt, a nearly decade-old platform that is synonymous with new startup launches and feature announcements. Y Combinator doesn't necessarily agree with this characterization: The accelerator's head of communications, Lindsay Amos, told me over email that "we encourage YC founders to launch on many platforms — from the YC Directory to Product Hunt to Hacker News to Launch YC — in order to reach customers, investors and candidates." The overlap isn't isolated. As Y Combinator makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt is making an Andreessen Horowitz. Meanwhile, a16z is making its own Y Combinator. Not to mention Product Hunt has investment capital from a16z and formerly went through the Y Combinator accelerator. The strategy is more than a tongue twister, it's a signal on what institutions think is important to offer these days (and why they're starting to borrow more than sugar, or deal flow, from their neighbors). For my full take, read my TechCrunch+ column, "YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z makes a YC." In the rest of this newsletter, we'll talk about Coalition, Backstage Capital and Africa's temperature-fluctuating summer. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or following me on Twitter or subscribing to my blog. Deal of the week Coalition! Built by a quartet of women operators in venture, Coalition is a fund meets network that is trying to get more diverse decision-makers onto cap tables. The two-pronged approach of fund and network helps Coalition cover multiple fronts: Founders can turn to the firm for capital or the network for advice at no further dilution. Aspiring investors and advisers can turn to the firm to begin building out their portfolio, and LPs can put money into an operation that is committed to broadening diversity on cap tables, known to have economic benefits. Here's why it's important: Coalition co-founder Ashley Mayer, the former VP of communications for Glossier, explained a little about the building philosophy behind the new company. Mayer explained that she and her three co-founders saw the value of taking a "portfolio approach" to careers, basically going deep on their respective operator roles while also angel investing and eventually scout investing. Three of them previously worked in venture but left it because they missed the experience of operating. Now, they're trying to scale a way for people to keep their day jobs and build beyond it. Coalition co-founder and Cityblock Health founder Toyin Ajayi said that "as one of few women of color leading a venture-backed company, I feel a deep obligation to hold the door open for others." Here's Carta's response to venture becoming more global Pitch Deck Teardown: Wilco's $7 million seed deck  Helios wants to tame the microservices development chaos Austin-based True Wealth Ventures raises second fund to back women-led startups MAYA Capital closes second fund with $100M for early-stage Latin American startups Image Credits: Coalition When do layoffs matter? Trick question — always This week on Equity, we spoke about Backstage Capital laying off a majority of its staff, weeks after pausing any investments in new startups. The workforce reduction, which impacted nine of Backstage Capital’s 12-person staff, was due to a lack of capital from limited partners, per fund founder Arlan Hamilton. Here's why it's important: Backstage Capital has invested in over 200 startups built by historically overlooked entrepreneurs, while Hamllton herself has invested in more than two dozen venture capital funds. Despite having impact, no single firm can be immune from the difficulties of venture (or growing in an environment full of macroeconomic and cultural hurdles). Below is an excerpt of my story. Without more support, it becomes difficult to close shop on new investments, bring more assets under management and bring more follow-on investments, Hamilton said. "Somebody asked me, 'why don't you have more under management?'" she said during the podcast. "You gotta ask these LPs, you gotta ask these family offices, you gotta ask these people who ask me, 'how can I be helpful,' and I say 'invest in our fund,' and I never hear from them again." Today's startup layoffs have nothing on the 2020 correction Cybersecurity startups, once the VC darling, hammered by layoffs Most startups were overvalued before 2021, and now it's causing problems Fintech Klarna reportedly raising at a $6.5B valuation, giving new meaning to the phrase 'down round' Understanding the not-so-fine print of 2022 term sheets Image Credits: Jordan Lye (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Africa charts its own course TC's Dominic-Madori Davis and Tage Kene-Okafor wrote a story about how the downturn is playing out in Africa, essentially answering why we should all be tuning into the continent’s activity this summer. Here's why it matters: Africa's venture capital totals weren't too shabby in the first quarter, but investors think that it may just be a reporting delay. If most of the deals were finalized before high interest rates, the war and inflation, experts say, we may see an economic downturn soon start affecting developing markets. The story doesn't stop there; I'd read more to see what Tiger Global tells us and how August is shaping up to be a key month of movement.  The summer could decide this year’s fate of the African funding landscape. Across the week Seen on TechCrunch OK, whose rocket just hit the moon? This co-worker does not exist: FBI warns of deepfakes interviewing for tech jobs Formerly rich NFT buyers party through the pain Robinhood almost imploded during the GameStop meme stock chaos FTX says no active talks to buy Robinhood Seen on TechCrunch+ Your startup pitch deck needs an operating plan 3 questions for the startup market as we enter Q3 Disclose your Scope 3 emissions, you cowards What's a fintech even worth these days? Until next time, N

Mystery rocket makes moonfall Posted: 02 Jul 2022 11:47 AM PDT Hello and welcome back to Week in Review, where we recap the biggest stories from the week. If you want this in your inbox every Saturday, sign up here. Greg Kumparak is still on vacation, but not to worry! He'll be back at the helm next week to bring you our biggest stories. Until then, I've got you covered. First for some quick business. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale, which gets you 50% off on an annual subscription. Need more? TC+ Editor-in-Chief Alex Wilhelm gives you all the reasons to take the plunge here. Okay let's go to the moon! Yes, the moon. Some space junk crashed to the lunar surface this week, causing some enthusiastic observers to scratch their heads. Was it from SpaceX? Was it from a rocket launched in 2014 by the China National Space Administration? We still don't know, but Devin Coldewey had a chat with Darren McKnight from LeoLabs, which has built a network of debris-tracking radar, to get some more insight. Image Credits: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University other stuff Speaking of space: Ever want to stare longingly into the depths of the universe and actually have something stare back? This is supposed to happen in two weeks when the James Webb Space Telescope will release its first images. "This is farther than humanity has ever looked before," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said during a media briefing this week. Maybe the truth is out there. Tesla Autopilot layoffs: The automaker this week laid off 195 employees across two offices in its Autopilot division. Those who were laid off filled supervisor, labeler and data analyst roles. Questions persist about what impact the layoffs will have on Tesla's wider advanced driver assistance system. The remaining 81 staffers on the Autopilot team will be relocated to another office, as the San Mateo office will be shuttered. SPAC subpoenas: A New York-based federal grand jury sent subpoenas to the board of Digital World, which is preparing to acquire Trump Media & Technology Group, Donald Trump's media group responsible for Truth Social. According to an SEC filing, the subpoenas are an effort to gather more information about "Digital World's S-1 filings, communications with or about multiple individuals, and information regarding Rocket One Capital." Deepfake job apps: The FBI this week issued a warning that deepfakes are being used along with stolen information to apply for jobs. A part of this even involves video interviews. "In these interviews, the actions and lip movement of the person seen interviewed on-camera do not completely coordinate with the audio of the person speaking. At times, actions such as coughing, sneezing, or other auditory actions are not aligned with what is presented visually," the FBI said in a statement announcing the disturbing news. Party pooper: Welp, that 2020-era indefinite ban on unauthorized parties at Airbnbs is now permanent. This means no open-invitation parties and no parties whose attendance exceeds 16. The company said in a blog post that since they instituted the ban 2 years ago, there was a 44% year-over-year decrease in the rate of party reports. There will be no partying on, Garth. Image Credits: DrAfter123 / Getty Images audio stuff Over on the TechCrunch Podcast Network, Christine Tao, founder of Sounding Board, joined Darrell and Jordan on Found to talk about difficulties she and her co-founder faced while fundraising and how they established the customer type that made scaling possible. And on the Wednesday episode of Equity, Natasha Mascarenhas asked a question inspired by a recent post penned by TC's own Rebecca Szkutak: What's in the fine print for term sheets these days, and what does that tell us about who is going to be in control during the downturn? Check out our full roundup. added stuff Want even more TechCrunch? Head on over to the aptly named TechCrunch+, where we get to go a bit deeper on the topics our subscribers tell us they care about. Some of the good stuff from this week includes: The SEC rejected bitcoin spot ETFs again. Now what? The SEC's decisions aren't a first for the industry; the government agency has denied over a dozen bitcoin spot ETFs in the past year alone while approving several bitcoin future-based ETFs, Jacquelyn Melinek reports. Disclose your Scope 3 emissions, you cowards Tim De Chant takes on the companies that claim they're serious about carbon emissions. In short, if they're serious, then they'll estimate their Scope 3 emissions and not undermine attempts to make Scope 3 disclosures standard. Pitch Deck Teardown: Wilco's $7 million seed deck Haje's back with another pitch deck teardown, this week from Wilco, a company whose funding he covered last week. He is pretty excited about Wilco's deck, as, he says, it's 19 slides that tick all of the boxes. Image Credits: Wilco (opens in a new window)

This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban Posted: 02 Jul 2022 11:45 AM PDT Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion. Today's consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they're not even the world's heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021. Apps aren't just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try, too. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters. TechCrunch+ is also having a sale that will allow subscribers to save 50% on an annual subscription here. More information here. Top Stories Consumers react to Roe v Wade by deleting period tracking apps In the week after the controversial Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade, consumers began to lock down access to their non-protected health data in period tracking apps. There was enough app switching taking place to influence the App Store charts, in fact, as users moved both to and from leading app Flo, benefitting rivals like Clue and Eve, which saw installs increase by 2,200% and 83%, respectively. Consumers swap period tracking apps in search of increased privacy following Roe v. Wade ruling There are differing opinions on how much concern there needs to be over this period tracking data. Some argue that period tracking app data would not be the primary evidence used if there were to be prosecutions over now criminalized abortions — an argument, however valid, essentially serves to chastise consumers for reacting in fear by switching to more private apps or deleting them altogether. The bigger picture here is that this data was never HIPPA protected in the first place. And if consumers are reacting with seemingly outsized concern, maybe it’s because the government’s ruling terrifies them about what the future for this country holds. Maybe it not so crazy to switch back to pen and paper at a time when a rogue court is throwing out half a century of established legal precedent in order to control bodies and invade citizens’ privacy. In any event, many period tracking app providers have been making promises to secure data or introduce new anonymity features. But in an unfortunate twist, it was a newcomer to the market that became the No. 1 app after the ruling — largely based on promises of end-to-end encryption and not its existing protections. As it turned out, the app — Stardust, as it was known — was sharing users phone numbers with a third-party. And after it rolled out its expected encryption later in the week, Stardust was found to be sending the local encryption key back to its servers. In layman’s terms, that means whatever was encrypted could now be decrypted. Not a good look. Now the House Democrats are considering legislation that could protect abortion rights and secure data in reproductive apps. Period tracker Stardust surges following Roe reversal, but its privacy claims aren’t airtight Snapchat thinks its users will pay for perks with Snapchat+ Image Credits: Snapchat Like many tech companies, Snapchat has been struggling amid the tougher economic conditions and inflation. The company reported a challenging first quarter where it had additionally cited supply chain disruptions, the war in Ukraine, labor shortages and rising interest rates as contributing factors to its miss on both revenue and earnings in the quarter, and only a small uptick in daily active users. The company is also still dealing with the fallout from Apple’s 2021 privacy changes, or ATT (App Tracking Transparency), that impacted its advertising business and revenue. In the midst of these macroeconomic factors, Snap is trying to navigate new regulations around minor safety, lock down its developer platform, roll out parental controls and remain competitive in a market where much of young people’s time spent in apps is now shifting to TikTok and other lightweight networking apps — or what TechCrunch recently dubbed “homescreen social” apps — like LiveIn, BeReal and others. This has resulted in a search for alternative business models beyond advertising, it seems. This week, Snap introduced Snapchat+ — a $3.99/month subscription that provides access to premium features like being able to pin a friend as a “BFF,” see who rewatched a Story and the ability to change the app icon. The move, which was leaked in advance, follows the launches of similar subscription options aimed at power users, like Telegram Premium’s recent launch and Twitter Blue. It’s hard to say if these investments will pay off in the long run. For now, Twitter continues to make the majority of its revenue from ads and a small bit from data licensing. Telegram’s offering is too new to analyze at this time. Snapchat+, meanwhile, is targeting an audience with perhaps even less to spend on subscription services. Will Snap’s high-schooler customers want to use their babysitting money, allowance or income from another minimum wage job or side hustle to gain a few extra features? Were these features actually in high demand, the way Twitter’s Edit button was? What’s the strategy for enhancing the offering over time? How will Snap evaluate which features to add — is it analyzing user data or behavior? Will it launch a feedback forum? Or will it just come up with ideas on its own? What percentage of revenue will Snapchat+ need to target to be considered a success? What are the ramifications to Snap if the product fails? Would Snap consider a bundle that combines hardware (like its new drone camera) and software? For what it’s worth, Snap clearly didn’t want to invite much scrutiny of this major change to its business model. The company only offered one outlet, The Verge, an interview and said very little in it — beyond conveying to investors that this won’t be a “material new source of revenue.” Snap also tried to suggest to the outlet that it had been thinking about subscriptions for over five years, as if the new product was not reactive to the state of its business today. Of course, tech companies weigh a variety of ideas all the time! But the timing of when they allocate real-world resources to build them is what actually matters. And Snap built a new way to make money at a time when the old way is suffering. Oh, we’re thinking about banning TikTok again? Image Credits: TechCrunch The GOP wants to force you to use Reels. OK, that’s not quite the story — but that could be the result. In actuality, Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote to Apple and Google to insist they pull TikTok from their app stores, calling it “a sophisticated surveillance tool” that’s harvesting “extensive amounts of personal and private data.” Carr’s letter was prompted by the new report from BuzzFeed News which found that ByteDance staff in China had access to U.S. users’ TikTok data as recently as January 2022. (Beijing-based ByteDance owns TikTok and its Chinese sister app, Douyin). Carr demanded the companies respond by July 8 if they didn’t comply and why. Specifically, he asked the app stores to explain why they would not penalize an app engaged in “the surreptitious access of private and sensitive U.S. user data by persons located in Beijing” coupled with “TikTok’s pattern of misleading representations and conduct.” TikTok has long insisted it stores U.S. users’ data in the U.S. itself, with backups in Singapore, and said the data was outside the jurisdiction of China’s national security law which requires companies to turn over data to the Communist party if requested. But if TikTok data was being accessed in China, these prior statements seem to be misleading, at best. The Trump administration had previously tried to ban TikTok by way of an executive order, but was held up in the courts. The Biden administration didn’t pursue the matter. But this latest incident now has the GOP interested in a ban once again. Fourteen GOP senators have also issued letters calling for answers from the video app, arguing it’s a national security threat. Of course, it’s not that easy to ban TikTok. Last time around, TikTok creators successfully sued to stop the ban, which they said would prevent them from being able to earn a living. Another judge had also blocked Trump’s ban, saying the former president had overstepped his authority. TikTok, meanwhile, has responded to BuzzFeed’s reporting by announcing it’s moving all U.S. user data to Oracle servers in the U.S., after which it will then delete U.S. users' data from its own data centers, it says. Sure, Jan. Weekly News Platforms: Apple Apple announced on Thursday developers in South Korea can now use third-party payments in their apps published to the South Korea App Store but will still pay a 26% commission. Plus, just as it tried before with Dutch dating apps, which had also won the right to use third-party payments, Apple said developers will need to submit their revised apps in a separate binary. Dutch regulators had pushed back against that provision, calling it an undue burden on developers, and Apple eventually dropped the requirement to come into compliance. It’s unclear how the Korea Communication Commission (KCC) will choose to respond, however. Apple CarPlay in iOS 16 will support a new feature that allows drivers to pay for gas through a screen in their car using the fuel company’s app, instead of having to pay at the pump itself. BP, Shell and Chevron have expressed interest. Apple clarified the iPad home hub support in iOS 16, after testers noted the iPad could no longer serve as a home hub — while Apple TV and HomePod devices could. The company explained that the Home app will introduce a new architecture in iPadOS 16 and iPad won’t be supported as a home hub with that upgrade. Impacted users can opt to not update their Home app to continue to use their iPad as a home hub. Apple released the fourth public beta of iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6. Platforms: Google Google’s Switch to Android app for iOS users is now compatible with all Android 12 phones, instead of just Pixel phones as before. The feature allows users to more easily make the move from iOS to Android by copying over contacts, calendars, photos and videos, and instructing on how to deregister iMessage. Google settled a lawsuit with Android app developers over fees. The company settled a lawsuit with U.S. app developers who made less than $2 million in Play Store revenue from 2016-2021 by setting aside $90 million in a fund to pay back money to developers. The suit had argued Google gained a monopoly in the Android app distribution space through anti-competitive practices. The law firm said 48,000 U.S. developers are eligible to receive payments from Google. E-commerce & Food Delivery Food delivery biz Deliveroo will expand advertising on its app in July, including by adding ads to its order-tracking page as it chases profitability. Fast food and membership club apps are seeing increased demand amid inflation, Apptopia reports. TikTok is testing a dedicated "Shop" feed in Indonesia that lets users browse and purchase products from different categories, such as clothing and electronics. Of note, the feed sits on the app’s main page alongside its For You and Following feeds, which would be a major change to the product. The TikTok Shop service itself is currently available in select markets, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the U.K. Augmented Reality Pokémon GO developer Niantic laid off 8% of its workforce, or around 85-90 people, amid the economic downturn. The company also canceled four upcoming projects, including Heavy Metal, a Transformers game that had already entered beta testing; Hamlet, a collaboration with the theater company behind "Sleep No More;" and two other projects known as Blue Sky and Snowball. Niantic has not been able to reproduce the success of its flagship game, having shut down a Harry Potter AR title and so far seen little adoption for its new AR game, Pikmin Bloom. The company is now working on a new AR game, NBA All-World. Niantic’s Lightship is also powering a new “Game of Thrones” app designed to promote HBO’s upcoming prequel series “House of the Dragon.” The AR app will allow users to hatch a personalized dragon egg and raise their dragon at home. The app, produced by The Mill, will arrive on July 20. Niantic launched Campfire, a new social app for its community that shows a map of your area with game experiences and activities from friends and other nearby players. The app helps users find local communities, add and manage friends, chat in one-on-one and group messages, join events and more. Social Image Credits: Facebook Facebook takes on Discord. The company this week rolled out new features for Facebook Groups including “Channels,” that allow users to connect with one another in smaller groups via chat or audio, similar to Discord, or in interest-based communities. The app will also test a new sidebar that will make it easier for users to find their groups more quickly, with the option to pin favorites to the top. Facebook also rolled out NFTs. U.S. NFT creators will now be able to display NFTs under a new tab on their profiles. Meta recently launched NFTs on Instagram in May 2022. Pinterest has a new CEO. The image pinboard and link-saving site’s co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann stepped down after a 12-year run, turning over the reins to Google commerce boss Bill Ready. Previously, Ready ran Google’s shopping and payments arm after joining Google from PayPal, which acquired its startup Braintree for $800 million in 2013. Last fall, PayPal had been reported to be considering a Pinterst acquisition. Instagram rolled out Reels APIs for developers. The new endpoints added to Instagram’s developer platform will allow developers to schedule Reels, publish to Instagram Business accounts, access social interaction metrics, reply to or delete comments, hide or unhide comments, disable or enable comments, find public Reels tagged with specific hashtags and identify Reels where an Instagram Business or Creator's alias has been tagged or @mentioned. Instagram users can now delete their accounts from within the iOS app. The app has complied with Apple’s new policy that states any app offering account creation must also now offer deletion. Instagram, however, puts accounts on hold for a month instead of immediately deleting them. If you log back in at any time, the deletion process is canceled. Instagram is testing a change that turns all videos into Reels. The company said it’s trying to “simplify and improve” the video experience in the app. In reality, the move is yet another effort aimed at helping Instagram catch up with TikTok. Short-form video app Triller filed for an IPO. The company confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO after ending its $5 billion merger with video ad software provider SeaChange International on June 14. Messaging WhatsApp is developing avatars. The Meta-owned company is working on an avatars feature similar to Apple’s Memoji or Snap’s Bitmoji, that could stand in for the user during video calls. Streaming & Entertainment Spotify launched a new personalized playlist option called "Supergrouper" that lets you create your own supergroup consisting of up to five artists. After you create and name your group, Spotify will curate a playlist of songs from the artists you selected, which you can also share on social media. U.S. artists on Spotify can now use the app’s Marquee self-serve ad-buying option to promote releases across 14 markets via the Spotify for Artists dashboard. Marquee first launched in October 2019 but wasn’t able to target users outside the U.S. initially. Twitch added a new Guest Star feature that lets streaming hosts bring up to five guests into a stream and swap them in and out. Gaming Meta VR developers call out the company for hypocrisy given its complaints over Apple’s App Store fees. The developers are frustrated with Meta’s 30% cut of their purchases and 15-30% cut of subscriptions, similar to Apple’s. They said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had called Apple’s fees “monopoly rents,” but his company is doing the same thing. The WSJ examined the growing complexity of hypercasual games which have begun adding leaderboards, multiplayer formats and in-app purchases to these previously simple games as they look to retain player retention amid market saturation. The games often also use rewarded ads or those that showcase someone playing poorly to encourage users’ sense of competition. Other ads will feature gameplay that doesn’t exist at all. Travel & Transportation Car rental apps in the U.S. hit all-time highs for new installs and MAUs in May, Apptopia found, indicating pent-up travel demand and possibly a desire to avoid the chaotic airline issues. New installs are projected to increase 27% YoY in Q2 2022, and MAUs are expected to increase 19.4%. Enterprise (39.6%), Hertz (36.8%) and Turo (34.3%) are growing MAUs the fastest, the firm said. Reading & News Storytelling community Wattpad launched a creator program that offers writers up to $25,000 in compensation. There’s also a new metric called “Engaged Readers” that helps track readers’ interest in stories and a creator portal where writers can get other tips about improving their content. Substack has begun to convert some writers' text into audio automatically using text-to-speech technology. Readers using the Substack iOS app will have the ability to hear posts read aloud as a result. Image Credits: Substack Government & Policy Russia is issuing fines to companies that aren’t storing Russian citizens’ personal data in the country. Google, Twitch, Pinterest, Airbnb and UPS have already been fined, and the government has opened cases against LikeMe and Apple as well. Security & Privacy Google notified Android users who were compromised by Hermit government-grade spyware which targeted victims in Kazakhstan and Italy. Google also examined the Hermit iOS app which is sideloaded onto devices and included six exploits, including two zero-days. Apple said it revoked all known accounts and certificates associated with the spyware campaign. T-Mobile launched a service called App Insights that allows marketers to target wireless customers based on the apps they have installed. Customer data is anonymized and pooled together with others with similar interests and behaviors. And users are opted in by default. Instagram is accused of continuing to allow a man accused of selling photos of children to pedophiles to maintain his account and share images for two months following his arrest, Forbes reports. Google updated its password manager for Chrome and Android, offering a way for users to manually enter new passwords across platforms, as well as a new unified user experience that automatically groups multiple passwords for the same sites or apps together, and a new shortcut on the Android home screen to get access to these passwords. The iOS Chrome app will also be able to generate strong passwords for you. Funding and M&A Data analysis startup Zing Data raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures for a mobile app that lets business users work with data wherever they are in an accessible way. The product can connect with a variety of popular data sources, including Snowflake, Trino, Google BigQuery and Google Sheets, as well as databases like Postgres and MySQL. Users then choose a dataset and some fields to display, then can manipulate the data to see different views and can share charts with others. London-based Birdie, a provider of digital tools for in-home care, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sofina, which will be used to scale the business in Europe. The SaaS company works with 700 care businesses that deliver millions of visits per month to around 35,000 recipients and 8,000 family members. Its services are available through both an iOS and Android app. London-based fintech Cleo, an AI-powered app for financial assistance, raised $80 million in Series C funding led by Sofina. The app targets the U.S. market’s Gen Z users with budgets and savings guidance and education. New Delhi-based digital bank Progcap raised $40 million in a Series C extension, valuing the business at $600 million, up 3x since September 2021. Creation Investments and Tiger Global led the round. The app serves 700,000 small retailers across hundreds of Indian cities and towns.

Tesla EV deliveries fall nearly 18% in second quarter following China factory shutdown Posted: 02 Jul 2022 10:27 AM PDT Tesla delivered 254,695 electric vehicles globally in the second quarter, a nearly 18% drop from the previous period as supply chain constraints, China’s extended COVID-19 lockdown and challenges around opening factories in Berlin and Austin took their toll on the company. This is the first time in two years that Tesla deliveries, which were 310,048 in the first period this year, have fallen quarter over quarter. Tesla deliveries were up 26.5% from the second quarter last year. The quarter-over-quarter reduction is in line with a broader supply chain problem in the industry. It also illustrates the importance of Tesla’s Shanghai factory to its business. Tesla shuttered its Shanghai factory multiple times in March due to rising COVID-19 cases that prompted a government shutdown. Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot The company said Saturday it produced 258,580 EVs, a 15% reduction from the previous quarter when it made 305,407 vehicles. Like in other quarters over the past two years, most of the produced and delivered vehicles were Model 3 and Model Ys. Only 16,411 of the produced vehicles were the older Model S and Model X vehicles. Tesla said in its released that June 2022 was the highest vehicle production month in Tesla's history. Despite that milestone, the EV maker as well as other companies in the industry, have struggled to keep apace with demand as supply chain problems persist.

A USB standard for satellites? Slingshot 1 takes to orbit to test one Posted: 02 Jul 2022 10:12 AM PDT Testing new satellites and space-based technologies has never been easy exactly, but it definitely could be easier. Slingshot 1, a 12U Cubesat mission just launched via Virgin Orbit, is an attempt to make building and testing a new satellite as easy as plugging a new keyboard into your computer. To say it’s “USB for space” is reductive… but not wrong. The team at the Aerospace Corporation that designed the new system makes the comparison itself, noting that the military has made several attempts to create just this with the Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA), which became the Modular Open Network ARCHitecture (MONARCH), and the Common Payload Interface Standard (CoPaIS). But the approaches haven’t taken off the way, say, the Cubesat standard has — which, by the way, Aerospace also pioneered. The goal of Slingshot 1 is to create a standard satellite bus that’s as adaptable and easy to use as USB or ATX, using open standards but also meeting all the necessary requirements for security, power, and so on: [Slingshot] offers more agility and flexibility in satellite development through the use of modular, plug-and-play interfaces. These interfaces leverage open-sourced systems to avoid proprietary lock-ins that may stall development, as well as standardized interfaces for payloads that would not require a customized satellite bus. These interfaces set the power, command, control, telemetry, and mission data that may be required for payloads. Without a set of common standards, these payload-to-satellite bus requirements are driven by varying satellite bus manufacturers. Slingshot eliminates this uncertainty by reducing the number of requirements and complexity in the interface and creating an open payload interface standard called Handle. How will it avoid the common trap encountered by would-be standard-standardizers, immortalized by XKCD: now there are N+1 standards? Well, leaving aside the pretty deplorable state of standards in the satellite world, if there can be said to be any, the team decided to base the whole thing on Ethernet, which underpins a huge amount of networking in the world already. “Basing the Handle standard on Ethernet builds on the vast ecosystem of hardware and software tools developed for that very common interface, essentially taking the most common terrestrial system standard and migrating it for satellite use,” said Dan Mabry, senior engineer specialist at Aerospace. “We've tailored the network for low power, but still support gigabit per second communications between devices with no custom software development required to tailor the network for each new application.” And as he put it when Aerospace wrote up Slingshot for its own purposes last year: “When a payload plugs in it'll instantly be recognized and work, and any broadcast data will get to the spacecraft downlink without any tuning or tweaking of the software onboard. Furthermore, because it's an onboard network, that payload's data is seen by all the other payloads as well. Payloads can easily collaborate in real-time, and distributed smart sensors and processors are coupled by the basic architecture.” Combine this with a power hub that can intelligently supply a variety of needs, and a modular enclosure that makes the whole thing look like the back of a well-organized gaming PC, and you’ve got a recipe for plug and play that really makes things easy on the prospective designer. The assembled Slingshot 1 setup without its outer enclosure. As Slingshot’s program manager, Hannah Weiher put it: “It's working to reduce interface complexity and support different satellite buses and payloads with minimal to zero adaptation needed to the interface. Handle was key to a streamlined payload integration process on Slingshot 1 where we had a wide range of payloads with different requirements and it enabled us to be able to integrate the volume of payloads we did in a satellite about the size of a shoe box.” Of course it’s not enough to simply send up a barebones interface — imagine sending up a PC case with nothing in it. To see if it works, you need stuff attached, and fortunately there are a ton of experiments and capabilities Aerospace has been saving up since Slingshot’s genesis in 2019. Handle – Plug-and-play payload electrical interface module Bender – Onboard ethernet and network routing t.Spoon – Modular mechanical interface t.Spoon Camera – Plug-and-play camera module t.Spoon Processor – Zynq Ultrascale+ onboard processing Starshield – Onboard malware detection CoralReef – Coral Tensor Processing Unit STarfish – Secure ARM Cortex-M33 onboard processing SDR – S-band Software-Defined Radio (SDR) downlink Keyspace – Cryptographic services for SmallSats Lasercom – Next-gen space/ground lasercom downlink ROESA – Using Internet of Things protocols to connect payloads Vertigo – Reconfigurable attitude control system Blinker – GPS transponder for space traffic management Hyper – SmallSat hydrogen peroxide thruster ExoRomper – Artificial intelligence and machine learning testbed Some of these are more or less self-explanatory, like t.Spoon’s various components, making up the core mechanical elements tying the whole thing together. And of course you need a nice software-defined radio downlink. But a tensor processing unit and machine learning testbed on a satellite? Internet of Things protocols? Cryptographic services? CG view of Slingshot expanding to show its components. When I talked with the team during a visit to Aerospace’s labs a while back, they talked about how a lot of what’s on Slingshot is unprecedented in some ways, but is more about adapting common terrestrial tasks to the extremely formalized and limited context of a satellite’s hardware and software. Say you have three or four payloads sharing a processor and storage. How do you make sure their communications remain secure? The same way you would on the ground, but adapted to the lightweight processing, limited-power, unusual interface of a spacegoing craft. Sure, secure processing and communications in space have been done before — but it’s not like there’s a plug and play version where you can just click a check box and suddenly your payload is fully encrypted. Similar is ExoRomper, which has an externally mounted camera hooked into the TPU. There’s been a bit of AI in space already, but never a setup where you can say: oh sure you can add on cloud recognition to your satellite, it’ll take up 2 watts, 20 cubic centimeters and 275 grams. This one in particular is set up to watch the satellite itself, looking at lighting conditions — something that seriously affect thermal loads and power handling. Why shouldn’t your satellite have its own satellite, watching to make sure there’s no hot spots on the solar cells? Data will be coming in from Slingshot as it tests out its many components and experiments over the coming months. It could be the start of a new modular era for small satellites.

Ring ring ring ring Solanaphone Posted: 02 Jul 2022 08:35 AM PDT Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about the NFT community being down bad but still down to party. This week, we’re looking at the desperation of web3 startups for a post-Apple tech industry. If you want to get this in your inbox every Thursday, you can subscribe on TechCrunch's newsletter page. crypto wants its own iPhone There are few consumer companies with a better reputation among users than Apple, there are also few “web2” companies that are more despised by crypto startups than Apple. We’ve talked a bit about Apple’s reputation in the crypto space over time. The App Store’s rules are pretty hostile to crypto and NFT startups, but it’s not the least understandable move for Apple which banks money on taking cuts of in-app transactions and justifies its monopoly by saying that they’re protecting users from scams and malware. Well, no one can argue that it’s simple to avoid scams in the crypto space these days, but life under Apple’s mobile empire is still frustrating for legit crypto apps that have to be content with being desktop-first in an overwhelmingly mobile world. As a result, it’s not so shocking that the crypto world is showing interest in building a world without Apple. A task that doesn’t sound all that straightforward… This week, Solana Labs, creators of the Solana blockchain which has had a dazzling rise and pretty dramatic fall in token price in recent months, has announced their own blockchain smartphone. If you’ve read TechCrunch over the years, this should be a bit eyebrow-raising. It’s nearly impossible to build a smartphone business as a startup, many have tried and few have achieved anything even closely resembling success. So the big #Solana announcement is here. What is SMS? @Solana Mobile Stack: a web 3 layer built on android allowing devs to create apps on the new… Solana phone: Saga #blockchain #crypto pic.twitter.com/xMx3bB2xtI — The Saint Eclectic (@sainteclectic) June 23, 2022 The Solana phone, called Saga, runs on Android and rocks its own blockchain-centric features including a baked-in hardware wallet which basically gives users a more secure path towards holding and trading crypto or NFTs on their smartphone. There is an audience for this phone in crypto world I’m sure, but this is far from ideal launch timing for a niche device that will likely have an even tighter niche of an audience next year when the phone actually launches. Web3 has gotten a surprising amount of buy-in from web2 giants, but there has been notably less of a warm reception from the companies that own mobile hardware. Apple’s users are hardly likely to rise up and demand more access to mobile app NFT purchases, so for now the company’s mobile stranglehold will be a frustration that web3 developers are tasked with almost hopelessly building their way out of. Solana launches web3-focused smartphone Saga to improve crypto-mobile relationship the latest pod This week, my co-host Anita was off on vacation so our colleague Jacquie joined us to dive into the week’s web3 happenings. We dove deeper onto the topic of the Solana Saga phone, we discussed FTX’s alleged interest in buying up Robinhood, we also chatted about some of the crypto financial firms that are currently in deep… trouble. For our guest this week, I chatted with Julian Holguin, the CEO of Doodles. Doodles is a very popular NFT project that has done just over $500 million in total sales volume. Holguin was previously a big exec at Billboard and has taken on the task of scaling the Doodles brand into an intellectual property powerhouse. The firm just banked its first round of venture funding from Alexis Ohanian and is gearing up for some big new NFT launches as it looks to keep the party going even amid a crypto downturn. Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple, Spotify or your alternative podcast platform of choice to keep up with us every week. https://t.co/6V1XL4yeon pic.twitter.com/MY0YFT8Ut1 — Jimmy Ragosa | Jrag.eth (@JimmyRagosa) June 30, 2022 follow the money Where startup money is moving in the crypto world: Entrepreneur First raises $158 million from Collison brothers to build a startup school with web3 programming No-code crypto games platform Soba raises $13.5 million led by Lightspeed Move-to-earn fitness startup Fitmint nabs $1.6 million from General Catalyst Web3 game Stella Fantasy gets $5 million from Animoca Brands NFTs for kids platform Cryptoys scores $23 million from a16z NFT curation app EyesFi raises $2 million from Multicoin Capital Blockchain startup Linera gets $6 million from a16z Financial security startup PolySign scores $53 million from Cowen Digital, others Wallet login startup Dynamic nabs $7.5 million from a16z NFTs for good startup R Labs gets $5 million from Softbank TC+ analysis Here’s some of this week’s crypto analysis you can read on our subscription service TC+ (written by TC’s Jacquelyn Melinek):  This crypto winter may be long, but builders remain bullish Even though the top digital assets in the crypto market are still down significantly year to date, some market participants are shrugging it off and focusing on the long game. The crypto world is working on building human experiences beyond throwing money at each other, Evin McMullen, CEO of metaverse-focused Disco.xyz, said. "Now that we are no longer looking at green candles to keep us occupied, we have an opportunity to explore what other kinds of fun we can have," McMullen said. "What other kinds of coordination games can we solve together that are not just based on token prices but are based on our activities as human beings?" Blockchain gaming unfazed by crypto volatility as gamers 'seek out entertainment' The web3 gaming industry is one of the few sectors seemingly unaffected by current crypto market conditions, with capital continuing to pool into the space — and some industry players say it's for good reason. The number of active web3 game users "has nothing to do with the market," because even when the economy is down, people will still seek out entertainment, Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands, said.  Thanks for reading, and again, if you want to get this in your inbox every Thursday, you can subscribe on TechCrunch's newsletter page. See you next week!

Notch will sell you insurance in case your Instagram gets hacked Posted: 02 Jul 2022 08:00 AM PDT Getting hacked sucks. It’s even worse if you’re a digital creator whose social media accounts literally pay your bills. When creators get hacked, it can mean that they aren’t able to post sponsored content, earn payments from badges or operate their Instagram shops — it’s debilitating, like if a chef broke their arm and had to cook with one hand. The Israel-based startup Notch is trying to see if insuring creators against Instagram hacks could offer a solution. Starting at $8 a month, creators can sign up for Notch’s Instagram account insurance, which means that if they get hacked and lose access to their account, the startup will pay them a stipend and help them regain control of their page. TechCrunch reviewed a sample insurance policy, which quoted a $459 annual fee (or about $38 a month) for insurance that pays out $244 for each day that a creator can’t get into their account after a hack. These daily reimbursements kick in after a 48 hour waiting period and max out at $22,000 (or 90 days) of payments per year. Notch uses a number of metrics to determine the nature of a creator’s policy. “We look at the follower count, engagement, where the audience is from, the vertical where the influencer works, how many posts per month that person usually uploads, how many of them are sponsored posts…” CEO Rafael Broshi explains. With that information, Notch can estimate how much sponsored content a creator posts a month, and how much money someone of their caliber would make off of each post. Then, the company can calculate a monthly fee for coverage. This isn’t an exact science, though — not all influencers are created equal, and the same level of followers or engagement may translate differently across various audiences. Plus, there’s no standardized base pay for a brand deal so it’s possible Notch might over- or underestimate a creator’s income. A key feature of the policy is that it only covers hacks. Some creators, especially those from marginalized communities, face targeted harassment on Instagram, which sometimes means that bad actors will mass-report their account for no reason, causing them to get banned or suspended. In these cases, whether a ban is deserved or not, Notch will not cover a creator’s loss of income.  “We’ll probably issue an add-on to the policy in the near future, which covers suspensions as well,” Broshi said. “We don’t currently cover those things, mainly because it’s very, very difficult to really build a product that provides value […] That’s why we went towards the hacking part, where we believe we will be able to help.” Notch is not affiliated with Instagram, but Broshi says that this is normal for insurance companies. “Car insurance companies don’t usually have any connection to the car manufacturer,” he told TechCrunch. Currently, the product is available in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee and Texas — each state has different regulations regarding insurance products, so approval in any individual state will be a different process. To be eligible for these payouts, creators need to turn on mutli-factor authentication (MFA). But many types of MFA exist, and the policy doesn’t offer more specifics. Some cybersecurity experts advise against using SMS texts as a second layer of security, since a SIM swapping hack (someone impersonating you to your phone carrier to take over your SIM card) could render you powerless against fraudulent log-in attempts. Insurance policies aside, it’s always a good time to take extra steps to protect your online security and digital privacy, especially if you’re someone whose income is directly tied to your internet presence. Notch doesn’t want you to get hacked because then they’d have to pay you, but you also don’t want to get hacked because… it would suck. Speaking of which, don’t even try to engineer a fake hack to get your daily payout — Notch’s contract prohibits it. So far, Notch has raised $7 million in an extended seed round led by Lightspeed Ventures. Longtime creators like Nas Daily and Casey Neistat are investors as well, which is an important vote of confidence for the company, since none of its founders have experience working in the creator economy. Of the three founders, Broshi is a former investor, CPO Elool Jacoby was a senior product manager at SimilarWeb and CTO Yuval Peled was a software engineer. Notch only just launched this month, so we haven’t yet witnessed how they may be able to help a creator through a hack. But before launch, Notch helped some creators with account retrieval, which is why there are testimonials on the company’s website. As with any startup, you don’t want to be the guinea pig — but, for big enough creators, a monthly payment could be worth the peace of mind it brings. Cybersecurity 101: How to protect your online security and digital privacy

4 climate tech investors sound off on Supreme Court’s EPA ruling Posted: 02 Jul 2022 07:00 AM PDT This week's Supreme Court decision to curtail the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions may not have been unexpected, but it was still a bombshell. Not only did it kill the prospect of quick executive action on the matter, it potentially cut off a number of regulatory solutions. The EPA had sought to rein in carbon emissions first through the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which had been shelved after court losses, and then through Biden administration regulations. The two Democratic administrations relied on part of the Clean Air Act that authorized the EPA administrator to use their judgment to produce a list of stationary pollution sources “which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” Carbon emissions certainly deserve to be on the list, with climate change expected to cause nearly 5 million excess deaths annually by 2100. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) Now, if anything is to be done on the matter, the court said that Congress must explicitly authorize it. Given the current state of Congress, climate legislation isn't impossible, but it’s also not very probable. Until that happens, the U.S. is going to become increasingly reliant on the private sector to provide climate-oriented solutions that not only limit carbon pollution but also give the country a chance at remaining competitive in a world that's quickly moving away from fossil fuels. “This is a race we cannot afford to lose, yet the Supreme Court has just tied weights to our feet.” Peter Davidson, CEO, Aligned Climate Capital The good news is that the climate tech sector has become a hotbed of activity in the past few years, drawing tens of billions in investment. Despite a dearth of government action in the U.S., investors have remained bullish, in part because of the sector's enormous potential. By 2025, climate tech could draw up to $2 trillion in investments annually by 2025, according to McKinsey. The Supreme Court's decision threatens to pour cold water on that, of course. While it may have tempered some enthusiasm in the short term, three climate tech investors remain optimistic that opportunity still exists and that the private sector can deliver results.

Retail investors or guinea pigs? Posted: 02 Jul 2022 06:01 AM PDT Welcome to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It's inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. There is a paradox when it comes to retail investors: Many startup-related deals are out of their reach (in part for their own sake). Yet, laypeople have also become the target of novel schemes hoping to attract their bets and savings. Are nonprofessional investors assuming more risk than they should? Let’s explore. — Anna Opium for the masses I am by no means a stock exchange expert. But while writing on cannabis and psychedelics startups for TechCrunch lately, I discovered that some young companies in these verticals are listing on trading markets that I had never heard of. I mean, I had heard of “pink sheets” — in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” I just didn’t think that over-the-counter securities were something startups would ever use. It looks like needing money for drugs makes you creative! TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) I have nothing against innovation, even when it comes to fundraising. But the fact that listed cannabis companies — many of which went public with nascent revenues more reminiscent of startup metrics than mature-company results — have seen their market caps crash is likely no coincidence. And when we consider the period of hype surrounding their public debuts, it's difficult to not wonder how many retail traders got burned. We're not merely discussing the most obscure exchanges, either. Cannabis companies listed on the Nasdaq, such as Akanda and Tilray, have also seen their value plummet. My perception that we’re seeing a new crop of companies, those focused on psychedelics, follow in the footsteps of cannabis companies is not mere speculation. “There is an unwarranted rush from founders to list their cannabis and psychedelics companies on stock exchanges,” VC Bek Muslimov told me. Muslimov is a co-founding partner at specialized investment firm Leafy Tunnel, and he sees a danger in rushed listings. “In this pursuit, founders and management teams bypass private financing markets which consist of professional and diligent investors such as VCs or growth capital funds,” he told me in an email. The problem here isn’t that private investors lose out on juicy opportunities. The problem is that they would have declined to invest in the first place. Not because they don’t invest in cannabis — few do. But Leafy Tunnel is one of them, meaning that its viewpoint here matters. What Muslimov objects to is seeing cannabis and psychedelics companies going public when they would not have passed venture capitalists’ criteria to get funded. “Unfortunately, this can lead to a situation where companies with poor business fundamentals and insufficient level of maturity are listed, allowing them to tap into funds of retail investors.”

YC makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt makes an a16z, a16z makes a YC Posted: 02 Jul 2022 04:00 AM PDT Tech innovation is a cycle, especially in the main character-driven world of early-stage venture capital and copycat nature of startups. The latest proof? Y Combinator this week announced Launch YC, a platform where people can sort accelerator startups by industry, batch and launch date to discover new products. The famed accelerator, which has seeded the likes of Instacart, Coinbase, OpenSea and Dropbox, invites users to vote for newly launched startups "to help them climb up the leaderboard, try out product demos and learn about the founding team," it said in a blog post. If it sounds familiar, it's because — in my perspective — Y Combinator is taking a not-so-subtle swipe at Product Hunt, a nearly decade-old platform that is synonymous with new startup launches and feature announcements. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) Y Combinator doesn't necessarily agree with this characterization: The accelerator's head of communications, Lindsay Amos, told me over email that "we encourage YC founders to launch on many platforms — from the YC Directory to Product Hunt to Hacker News to Launch YC — in order to reach customers, investors and candidates." The overlap isn't isolated. As Y Combinator makes a Product Hunt, Product Hunt is making an Andreessen Horowitz. Meanwhile, a16z is making its own Y Combinator. Not to mention Product Hunt has investment capital from a16z and formerly went through the Y Combinator accelerator.

Google will start erasing location data for abortion clinic visits Posted: 01 Jul 2022 04:09 PM PDT In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to strip federal abortion rights in the U.S., many people are questioning how the apps they use every day might suddenly be turned against them. As concerns mount over the endless well of data that tech companies built an entire industry around, Google is taking at least one step to mitigate some potential harm related to location tracking. The company announced Friday in a blog post that it would remove location history data about some “particularly personal” places from a Google account shortly after someone visits. Locations that will have their data deleted include “medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others,” according to the blog. Google also noted that Fitbit users who use the device’s companion software as a period tracker currently must delete those entries one by one, but an easier way to “delete multiple logs at once” is on the way. The change to location history will go into effect in the next few weeks, emptying one potential bucket of data that law enforcement could demand from the company. Google notes that its location history feature is off by default for people who use its services, but if you’re not sure about that, it’s always worth double-checking what personal information you’re actively sharing with tech’s data brokers — particularly now. Consumers swap period tracking apps in search of increased privacy following Roe v. Wade ruling Period tracker Stardust surges following Roe reversal, but its privacy claims aren’t airtight

Crypto mega hedge fund Three Arrows Capital reportedly files for bankruptcy in New York Posted: 01 Jul 2022 04:02 PM PDT Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York, according to a report in Bloomberg. The mega fund, founded by Credit Suisse traders Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, at one time managed an estimated $10 billion in assets and was a linchpin among crypto finance players. Its insolvency has forced major industry players to reshuffle operations and limit customer withdrawals amid a crypto selloff that seemed to catch plenty of mega firms off guard. Chapter 15 bankruptcy will allow the foreign firm to protect its stateside assets while the liquidation is carried out in the British Virgin Islands following a court order this week after 3AC defaulted on a $660 million loan to Voyager Digital. 3AC is based in Singapore. The firm’s ongoing collapse is causing trouble for plenty of venture-backed crypto darlings. Earlier today, BlockFi announced a deal with FTX U.S. and noted that it had lost around $80 million from its dealings with 3AC. FTX US deal with troubled crypto lender BlockFi floats acquisition with ‘up to’ $240M purchase price Subscribe to TechCrunch's crypto newsletter “Chain Reaction” for news, funding updates and hot takes on the wild world of web3 — and take a listen to our companion podcast!

Daily Crunch: Organization urges open source developers to dump GitHub following Copilot launch Posted: 01 Jul 2022 03:05 PM PDT To get a roundup of TechCrunch's biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Happy Friday, everyone! If you are sitting around this weekend, catch up on your TechCrunch podcasts and check out what went on this week at TechCrunch+. Just a reminder that there will not be a newsletter on Monday for the Fourth of July. I hope you have a safe holiday weekend. See you on Tuesday!  — Christine P.S. We've got a couple of deals for you we don't want you to miss out on! First, save 50% on an annual subscription to TC+. And the two-for-one ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt sale will expire on July 5. Bring your team to TechCrunch Disrupt and save big with our flash sale The TechCrunch Top 3 Some developers are not happy: If you haven't had a chance to meet our new Europe reporter, Paul Sawers, you are in for a treat because he knocked it out of the park today. He wrote about the Software Freedom Conservancy urging open source developers to ditch GitHub following the company’s commercial launch of Copilot. Their beef, among other things, is that there is now a fee associated with using Copilot. It's going down: Buy now, pay later fintech company Klarna is reportedly raising a fresh round of funding at a valuation far below some of its previous rounds. Mary Ann has more. Valuation waits for no market: Alex digs into OpenSea's $13 billion valuation and why that is not in line with what he is seeing with NFT trading volumes. Startups and VC A bit of a slow day for startup news, but let's dive in: Another wave: Natasha and Amanda are back with the saddest list we put together — all the tech layoffs. No head in the clouds here: Snowflake made a name for itself in all things cloud data warehousing, and Ron writes today that Hydra is here to take an open source approach. The company, which raised $3.1 million after graduating from Y Combinator's winter 2022 class, is building its cloud data warehouse on top of the popular open source Postgres database. Extra efficiency: I highlighted Promoted.ai's new $6 million seed extension that will go toward the company's long-term vision of helping e-commerce marketplaces achieve profitability. Their technology brings all that gooey marketplace goodness, the search, feed, ads and promotions, together under one platform. A shot in the arm: Medical testing has never been so important now, and Haje got word that Visby Medical brought in another $35 million, an extension to a $100 million Series E round raised earlier this year. The company is working on "the world's first instrument-free handheld PCR platform to accurately and rapidly test for a variety of serious infections to anyone who needs it.” Pitch Deck Teardown: Wilco's $7 million seed deck Image Credits: Wilco (opens in a new window) Founders with a technical background would do well to heed one of the biggest takeaways from Wilco’s $7 million seed pitch deck: Avoid the trap of focusing too much on the features of a product, rather than its benefits, Haje writes. “The ‘how’ will be important, but risks the temptation of getting into more detail than what's important for a pitch deck. The ‘what’ is too tactical; for this part of the story, it doesn't really matter what users need to do to gain these benefits. Focusing on the ‘why’ is why this slide is so powerful; it opens the door to more in-depth conversations if needed, but the groundwork is there. I wish more startups got this right!” Pitch Deck Teardown: Wilco’s $7 million seed deck (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Big Tech Inc. Yes, the Apple Store was down for 2 hours yesterday, but all is right now with the world. Haje reported that it came back on with the removal of Enjoy — the company that was in charge of delivery and setup of Apple devices —  following Enjoy's bankruptcy announcement, and that a $50 gift card will ship out with the purchase of either the Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD. Annie digs into a story about the U.S. commodities regulator, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pursuing a civil charge filing against Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited, a South African bitcoin pool operator, and its CEO Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, for allegedly running a fraudulent commodity pool worth more than $1.7 billion in bitcoin. Across the pond, Natasha delivered a pair of European Union–related stories today. One was that Amazon has agreed to make it easier for people to cancel their Prime membership, while lawmakers gave their stamp of approval on some new regulations pertaining to cryptocurrency. Google is settling: Ivan writes that the search engine giant agreed to pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit with U.S. developers who accused Google of abusing its power of app distribution and charging an unfair fee of 30% for app purchases and in-app purchases made through the Play Store. Crypto chaos: One firm, whose application for a bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund was rejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is now suing the federal entity. Jacquie reports on why one expert says that approach isn't likely to work. FTX is at it again: First, it was rumored that FTX was looking to acquire Robinhood, which was debunked, but now another deal for BlockFi looks to be sticking. Lucas has more. No EPA, no cry: Tim dives into why the Supreme Court's recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling "all but ensures the U.S. won't be competitive with China or Europe."

Samsung’s cloud gaming hub brings Xbox, Twitch and more to newest smart TVs Posted: 01 Jul 2022 01:38 PM PDT Samsung announced yesterday that it is bridging its hardware and software for a better gaming experience, bringing the Samsung Gaming Hub to its 2022 lineup of smart TVs and monitors. Game streaming content on the hub includes Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Stadia and Utomik, along with apps YouTube and Spotify. Twitch has also been added, and Amazon Luna will be available soon. The company is rolling out its gaming hub on Samsung TVs like the 2022 Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K and 2022 Smart Monitor Series. The unofficial Twitch.TV app was removed from Samsung smart TVs in 2019, so the news marks the official app’s first time on the platform. Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service has been available on Fire TVs since March, and this partnership with Samsung could give the young gaming service a way to reach more players. Microsoft's Xbox TV app is the most significant new addition as it is currently exclusive to the Samsung Gaming Hub and provides access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft’s new Xbox TV app will let players stream games on new Samsung smart TVs without a console Announced during the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show), the Samsung Gaming Hub gives consumers a way to access major cloud gaming services on their smart TV — no console or PC is needed. Smart TVs offer an increasingly viable alternative to dedicated gaming hardware and Samsung is betting that an all-in-one destination for cloud-based and console games will attract gamers who prioritize convenience. "The Samsung Gaming Hub combines Samsung's leadership in streaming technology with our experience in creating the industry's most cutting-edge hardware, removing the barriers to entry so people can just play," Won-Jin Lee, president and head of the Service Business Team at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. "With expanding partnerships across leading game streaming services and expert-curated recommendations, players will be able to easily browse and discover games from the widest selection available, regardless of platform." Players with dedicated game consoles can use Samsung’s support for passthrough controller inputs with the smart TVs, letting them use a single controller instead of pairing multiple ones. That way, consumers can use the Bluetooth headsets and controllers they already own across apps and devices. Samsung Gaming Hub users will also have access to game recommendations, gaming news and tutorials like they might on a dedicated gaming console. Samsung’s 2022 Smart TVs to support cloud gaming, video chat and even NFTs

I want to forget Elon’s dumb $420 tweet, but y’all won’t let me Posted: 01 Jul 2022 01:27 PM PDT Elon Musk hasn’t tweeted in 10 days, but his Twitter account is once again news because time is a flat circle. This is why we must now scrunch our faces, cock our heads to one side and strain to recall a weed joke shared by the chief executive on August 7, 2018. Otherwise, we’ll never understand why activist investors are shouting for the Securities and Exchange Commission to intervene in Tesla's shrinking board. On that fateful day, Musk said he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420” per share and had secured funding to do so. Only, he apparently hadn’t, so the SEC hit Musk with fraud charges over “false and misleading” tweets. Musk and Tesla later reached an agreement to play nice with the agency. It involved some wrist slapping. As part of the agreement, Musk and Tesla collectively forked over $40 million, Musk temporarily stepped down as chairman, Tesla added two independent directors to its board, and Musk was told to get his tweets checked. Yet, according to a June 17 letter from SOC, an activist investor group, Tesla is now violating this deal twice over. The group states that: Tesla’s board failed to exercise “effective oversight or [establish] a credible pre-clearance process” for Elon’s tweets. And, Tesla does not intend to replace Oracle CEO and island owner Larry Ellison, who is “one of the two independent directors Tesla appointed to comply” with the deal. (Tesla indicated last month that Ellison would leave his role and would not be replaced.) SOC claims that Tesla’s shrinking board, and the dwindling ratio of independent board members to non-independent board members (poised to go from “9 to 2” to “5 to 2”), amounts to a “failure to comply” with the SEC decree. The investor group now wants the SEC to make Tesla “nominate at least one additional independent director to its board.” Meanwhile, Musk filed an appeal a few weeks ago to kill the SEC agreement altogether, in the name of free speech. Either way, there is no escape. Try as I might to forget Musk’s silly little tweets, the universe simply will not allow it. I’m choosing to accept my fate of residing in a Musk-laced “Groundhog Day.” Will you? Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Sequoia Capital reportedly raising two funds, and despite slower VC environment, it’s not alone Posted: 01 Jul 2022 01:21 PM PDT Venture capital investments may be slower, but that seems to be giving venture capital firms some time to go out and raise funds of their own. Sequoia Capital is the latest to reportedly be raising two new U.S.-focused funds, valued at up to $2.25 billion, The Information reported earlier this week. The publication reported that Menlo Park-based Sequoia is looking at $1.5 billion for a U.S. growth fund focused on later-stage companies and a $750 million fund targeting earlier-stage startups. Those funds are expected to close in July. This news comes out just over a month after the venture capital giant told founders that it was expecting a longer economic recovery. Colleagues reported Sequoia telling them, "With the cost of capital (both debt and equity) rising, the market is signaling a strong preference for companies who can generate cash today." Last October, TechCrunch reported on Sequoia Capital debuting a big shift in strategy as it looked to boost its returns amid increased competition in the market for startup financing. The storied venture capital firm announced that it was breaking with tradition, abandoning the traditional fund structure and their artificial timelines for returning LP capital. The firm's future investments, it said, would now flow through a "singular, permanent structure" called The Sequoia Fund. The VC firm is not alone in raising new funds lately. For example, earlier this week, Drive Capital said it raised another $1 billion to invest in startups located in the middle of the country, bringing its assets under management to $2.2 billion. Conversion Capital earlier this week announced a new $122 million fund to back early-stage fintech and infrastructure startups. Meanwhile, Simple Food Ventures made a first close toward its $15 million fund for healthier grocery store staples. Within the past few months, we also saw Anterra Capital announce its second global food and agriculture tech fund of $260 million and Vine Ventures close on $140 million, half of which will go into Israeli startups. Sequoia Capital plays Nostradamus (again)

The end of a second straight month of layoffs in tech Posted: 01 Jul 2022 12:01 PM PDT June brought another wave of layoffs in tech, with cuts impacting roughly the same number of employees as May: 16,000 employees, according to tracker layoffs.fyi. Another layoff aggregator from TrueUp paints a more dire picture, counting 26,000 impacted employees this month, up from about 20,000 last month. Either way, the data is grim. The end of a second straight month of nearly daily layoffs shows how every startup sector, from mobility to fintech, is impacted by the downturn. Strategy ranges; some companies are laying off specific teams, others are distributing cuts across all departments, and many aren't responding to comments when asked for further information. There are also the founders who — within the same breath of their layoff announcement — will make it clear that they are still hiring for strategic roles. Here are some of the companies that laid off staff this week, and the stated reasons behind those cuts: Niantic When Niantic released Pokémon Go in 2016, the company put itself firmly on the map as an AR and mobile gaming company to watch out for. The animal-collecting game earned $500 million in just its first two months, making it one of the fastest-growing mobile games ever. Over the last six (!) years, the hype around the game may have died down, but its profits have only continued to grow, with Niantic earning over $1 billion from from the title’s in-app purchases last year. But beyond Pokémon Go, Niantic has struggled to replicate the same level of breakthrough success with the other games it's released, like now-defunct Harry Potter: Wizards Unite or Pikmin Bloom, which also borrows from Nintendo IP. So, like basically every other tech company right now, Niantic had to make a difficult decision. The company canceled four new projects, including a hyped Transformers game, and let go of 8% of its staff, impacting 85 to 90 employees. Just seven months ago, the company raised $300 million at a $9 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation from 2018. If Niantic can't make another game as profitable as Pokémon Go, it could still see success as a company selling AR development tools — but that would require a pivot. Starting next year, Niantic's Lightship AR development kit will no longer be free, which could open a new revenue stream for the business. Byju's cuts hundreds of jobs Edtech business Byju rose to prominence over the pandemic as it both helped answer the demand for remote education and boasted the highest known valuation of any startup in India. This week Byju's eliminated hundreds of jobs in recent days and pushed back on payments for a $1 billion acquisition that it announced last year, TC's Manish Singh reports. The company, last valued at $22 billion, specifically cut hundreds of jobs at two of its latest acquisitions: Toppr, an online learning startup, and WhiteHat Jr, a kids-focused coding platform. Byju’s tells TechCrunch that less than 500 people have been impacted by the workforce reduction. Singh also said that "jobs of about 11,000 employees in India have been eliminated this year due to the market correction (or so has been the single most popular excuse), according to estimates." Tesla lays off nearly 200 Autopilot workers, shutters San Mateo office Tesla laid off the data annotation team working on Autopilot, its advanced driver assistance system, impacting nearly 200 employees. Alongside the workforce reduction, Tesla shut down the San Mateo, California office where Autopilot's team worked. Reports Rebecca Bellan: Until today, Tesla had hundreds of data annotation employees working on the Autopilot team in San Mateo and Buffalo, New York. The San Mateo office had a headcount of 276, and after laying off 195 staffers from all ranks — supervisors, labelers and data analysts — the team is left with 81 workers, who sources say will be relocated to another office. Backstage Capital cuts majority of staff after pausing net new investments Backstage Capital downsized its staff from 12 to three people, managing partner and founder Arlan Hamilton said during her "Your First Million" podcast that was published last Sunday. The layoff comes nearly three months after Backstage Capital narrowed its investment strategy to only participate in follow-on rounds of existing portfolios. This workforce reduction further underscores that the venture capital firm is struggling to grow, both externally and internally. "It's not that I feel like there's any sort of failure on the fund side, on the firm's side, on Backstage's side; it's that this could have been avoided if systems were different — if the system we work within were different," Hamilton said during the podcast. Hamilton did not respond to requests via email for further comment. StockX’s second layoff Shoe resale platform StockX, last valued at $3.8 billion, has laid off 8% of employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The Detroit-based company says it has raised over $550 million in known capital since its inception in 2016. StockX send the following statement in regards to the workforce reduction: As a growing global brand, it is important to adapt and pivot to deliver the highest level of service to the millions of customers we serve around the world. The macroeconomic challenges currently impacting our global economy continue to affect consumer behavior, and hit businesses of all shapes and sizes. StockX is not immune to these challenges, and while our business continues to grow, the current climate calls for us to make adjustments. As a result, we made the difficult but prudent decision to reduce our workforce. Parting with team members is never easy, particularly when those team members are people who are passionate about their work and committed to delivering on our brand promise each and every day. However, effectively navigating today's reality requires investment in long-term sustainability. We are grateful for the contributions of those impacted and are working to ensure they are supported in this time of transition. This isn't the first layoff that StockX has announced: In April 2020, StockX laid off 108 people or 12% of its global workforce. Today's cuts are slimmer but show how tensions manifest for the company through two separate economic moments. The StockX EC-1 Substack cuts 13 employees After walking back another attempt to raise venture capital, Substack is cutting costs by letting go of 13 employees who mostly worked in HR and writer support roles. "Our goal is to make Substack robust even in the toughest economic market conditions, and to set the company up for long-term success without relying on raising money — or, at least, doing so only on our time and our terms," Best wrote in a letter to employees, which he made public on Twitter. Substack is still hiring, but at a slower pace. Currently, its jobs site lists three engineering roles, a sales rep, a head of growth and a head of HR. As the company matures, it's also seen great competition: Even Twitter is pushing long-form and newsletter products now. "I'm very sorry. Not long ago, I told you all that our plan was to grow the team and not do layoffs," Best wrote. Is Substack really worth $650M?   Amount, which was valued at $1B last year, lays off 18% of staff Amount, a fintech that reached unicorn status last year, has laid off 18% of its workforce, reports Mary Ann Azevedo. In a written statement, CEO Adam Hughes confirmed the percent impacted and said that “due to the current macro-economic environment, we have decided to take some proactive adjustments to ensure Amount's ability to thrive for years to come. We believe these actions are the prudent thing to do for the long-term health of the company and remain extremely excited about the future.” As Azevedo reports, Amount has raised $243 million to date from investors including WestCap and Goldman Sachs. The startup spun out of Avant, an online lender, in January 2020 to build enterprise software for the banking industry. However, after landing a $99 million Series D last year, this week’s cuts show that the businesses growth is not going as planned.

Valkyrie CEO says suing US SEC for a spot bitcoin ETF ‘isn’t likely to succeed’ Posted: 01 Jul 2022 12:00 PM PDT Earlier this week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two applications for bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). One of the firms, Grayscale Investments, responded by filing a lawsuit against the agency. But not everyone is convinced that it'll work. "The SEC rejecting both Bitwise and Grayscale's GBTC spot bitcoin ETF applications is not at all surprising because it follows the same precedent that other asset managers have endured," Leah Wald, CEO of Valkyrie Investments, said in a Twitter thread. "Suing the SEC isn't likely to succeed." Wald's Nashville-based digital asset investment firm has over $1 billion in assets under management. Valkyrie also is home to one of the SEC-approved bitcoin futures ETFs, Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), which was approved last year. TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) In the past, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said crypto exchanges should register with the regulator just like traditional securities exchanges. While the agency has approved a handful of long and short exposure bitcoin futures ETFs, it has denied every spot bitcoin ETF that has applied to date. The SEC has imposed enormous costs on investors "with no legitimate rationale," Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, tweeted on Friday.

Behind the scenes of Waymo’s worst automated truck crash Posted: 01 Jul 2022 11:43 AM PDT The most serious crash to date involving a self-driving truck might have resulted in only moderate injuries, but it exposed how unprepared local government and law enforcement are to deal with the new technology. On May 5, a Class 8 Waymo Via truck operating in autonomous mode with a human safety operator behind the wheel was hauling a trailer northbound on Interstate 45 toward Dallas, Texas. At 3:11 p.m., just outside Ennis, the modified Peterbilt was traveling in the far right lane when a passing truck and trailer combo entered its lane. The driver of the Waymo Via truck told police that the other semi truck continued to maneuver into the lane, forcing Waymo's truck and trailer off the roadway. She was later taken to a hospital for injuries that Waymo described in its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as "moderate." The other truck drove off without stopping. While Waymo's autonomous semi truck was not at fault in the hit and run, the incident highlights gaps in reporting mechanisms, and raises questions about how ready the public and law enforcement are to cope with heavy, fast-moving vehicles that have no human driver. The stakes for the autonomous trucking industry, which is still in its infancy, couldn't be any higher. One crash, even if the company is not at fault, could tarnish the public's image of the technology.  Waymo’s trucking origins Waymo started testing its driverless technology with semi trucks in 2017, beginning in California and Arizona. At the time, it was in the middle of an epic legal battle with Uber over technology allegedly taken from Waymo by engineer Anthony Levandowski, and subsequently purchased by Uber as part of self-driving truck startup Otto. Waymo's self-driving trucks, which are part of a delivery and logistics division the company calls Waymo Via, rely on similar technologies to its robotaxis: a suite of sensors, including cameras, radars and lidars, and powerful on-board computers. All have qualified truck drivers — known as autonomous specialists — in the driver's seat.   In 2018, Waymo began hauling freight in Georgia, and it branded its delivery business Waymo Via in 2020. It then expanded into New Mexico and Texas, and inked deals with logistics companies like J.B. Hunt, UPS and C.H. Robinson. Earlier this month, it committed to a long-term strategic partnership with Uber and announced a pilot delivery program with home goods e-tailer Wayfair. That pilot is due to start in July on the same stretch of I-45 highway where the May crash occurred.  Inside the crash Using reports from local police and the Department of Transportation, and data supplied by Waymo to NHTSA, TechCrunch has attempted to reconstruct the worst self-driving truck crash on U.S. roads to date. According to Waymo, the Peterbilt 579 truck was not carrying freight for any customers or partners; it was conducting "standard" testing with a weighted load. Behind the wheel was a 40-year-old autonomous specialist with a decade of truck driving experience; there was also a software operator on board. Like many workers in Waymo vehicles, both were actually employed by Transdev, a multinational transit and mobility company. Although the ultimate aim of automated trucks is to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, staffing costs, self-driving truck startups today operate with a safety driver and an engineer or technician on board. Waymo reported that its truck was driving in autonomous mode at 62 miles per hour, slightly below the speed limit, when the other truck entered its lane and forced it off the road.  A Waymo Via self-driving truck was hit by another semi truck in May 2022. Image Credits: Ennis Police Department Waymo told TechCrunch that the safety operator did not take control of the truck from its autonomous system.  "The technology was not a factor, as this collision was caused by a human driver of another vehicle when they crossed the lane line and collided with the cab of Waymo's vehicle and continued driving," spokesperson Katherine Barna wrote in an email. Ennis PD photos, obtained under public records laws, show the Waymo truck and trailer by the side of the highway. They appear to have been prevented from sliding onto a parallel suburban road by a crash barrier. An Ennis police officer noted the truck itself sustained only minor damage: one picture shows damage to the truck's lidar laser-ranging sensor. Photo of Waymo Via’s lidar sensor, which was damaged in a crash in Texas. Image Credits: Ennis Police Department The driver, however, was taken to a nearby hospital with unspecified, moderate injuries. The attending officer classified the incident as a hit and run. Waymo told TechCrunch that it understands the driver is doing well, following their injury. The driver did not respond to a request from TechCrunch for comment. Because the system was active during at least some of the 30 seconds preceding the collision, Waymo was required to report it to NHTSA, to comply with the agency's Standing General Order on Crash Reporting for automated vehicles. Gaps in the system There are no checkboxes on a Texas Department of Transportation crash report to record whether the vehicles involved are operating with full or partial automation, and that information was not recorded in the narrative section of the Waymo crash report. Ennis PD Detective Paul Asby, who later investigated the incident, told TechCrunch that he did not know the truck was operating autonomously at the time of the collision. At the hospital, the Waymo driver told police the hit-and-run vehicle belonged to Helwig Trucking, a local carrier with about 15 trucks. (Waymo also confirmed that the truck's cameras captured enough details to identify the other vehicle.) Helwig did not respond to a request for comment. The driver left her phone number with the police and was released from the hospital, and the Waymo truck was towed away. Waymo also provided a contact number to the police. Detective Asby was assigned to the case, and quickly established that the crash was the fault of the Helwig driver. He contacted the company to get its side of the story, and its insurance details. But when it came to Waymo, Asby met a wall of silence. "I was going to speak to the driver because she was taken to the hospital but I’ve tried to contact her cell phone and it says it’s not a valid number," he said. "The same thing for the passenger who was in there with her." Subsequent calls to Waymo itself went unanswered. "They never did return my calls. I inactivated the case, but the insurance information is in there if they want it," he says. "Maybe they're so rich they don't care."  Waymo told TechCrunch that it is not aware of any attempt by Ennis PD to contact it for information, and that it did not have any need to contact the department itself.  How it's going The Ennis crash is not the only one to have involved a Waymo semi truck. In February, a similar Waymo Peterbilt 579 traveling southbound on Interstate 10 near Sacaton, Arizona, was struck by a box truck traveling in the adjacent lane, and which had just also hit a motor coach. The Waymo vehicle was traveling 50 mph in a 75 mph limit zone. TechCrunch was not immediately able to source a police report detailing the crash; there were no reported injuries. If Waymo had not been required to report the crashes to NHTSA, there is a chance they might never have come to light. The official crash reports gathered by Texas, which has welcomed multiple self-driving truck operations to its highways, appear insufficient to fully record incidents involving driverless vehicles. Local law enforcement has historically been similarly ill-equipped to deal with driving systems instead of driving humans.  Waymo is trying to close those gaps, says Barna. "Waymo has built the Waymo Driver to interact with First Responders; and has worked closely with public safety officials to ensure the safe introduction of our technology in every market that we operate in," she told TechCrunch.  "We have a team with decades of law enforcement experience that has provided training to hundreds of officers and firefighters in California, Arizona and Texas detailing best practices for safe interactions with Waymo vehicles." "We've got a mountain of work to do integrating these things into society," said Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies trucking, and acts as an advisor to Aurora's self-driving truck effort. "We need to talk a lot more about what they mean for supply chains, for workers and for the highway. There are a lot of people who are going to do stupid and aggressive stuff around them because they don’t like self-driving vehicles." Waymo has told the U.S. Department of Transportation that it has 47 trucks, which have driven more than 1.6 million miles. It would not disclose to TechCrunch how many of those miles were driven under some level of automated control. Automated trucking companies have "got the basic driving stuff down," says Viscelli. "It’s what happens with the family on vacation and the tire's off, or when there’s construction that changes the shape of the road, or debris on the highway. It’s when you have confidence in those issues that’s going to determine when they're on the road. But I would not be surprised to see trucks without drivers on lanes next year." Updated: TechCrunch updated the article to reflect that Waymo also provided a contact number to the police.

Reddit acquires natural language processing company MeaningCloud Posted: 01 Jul 2022 11:38 AM PDT Reddit announced Friday that it’s acquiring MeaningCloud, a natural language processing company, for an undisclosed amount. The MeaningCloud team has joined Reddit and will support machine learning projects across its product, safety and ads teams. The acquisition marks Reddit's first office in Spain. MeaningCloud was founded in 2015 and specializes in extracting meaning from unstructured content, such as social conversations and web content. Reddit says the company’s technology will strengthen its machine learning proficiencies and understanding of unstructured data to provide relevant information for Reddit users. "MeaningCloud helps strengthen Reddit's platform by helping our community get the relevant information they are looking for even faster,” said Jack Hanlon, the vice president of data at Reddit, in a statement. “With the addition of MeaningClound's technology, we can continue our mission of providing simpler, richer and more relevant content to our users. We are thrilled to welcome the talented MeaningCloud team to Reddit." The company says today’s announcement aligns with its recent acquisition of Spell, a platform for running machine learning experiments. Spell was founded by former Facebook engineer Serkan Piantino in 2016 to provide a cloud computing solution to allow anyone to run resource-intensive ML experiments without the high-end hardware that would normally be necessary. Reddit currently uses machine learning for personalized recommendations and the Discover Tab, which the app introduced this year. The company also leverages the technology for its safety work and targeted advertising. Between today’s announcement and the company’s recent acquisition of Spell, Reddit seems to be focused on investing in AI. The company recently said part of its mission is to ensure that any AI the company works on is transparent and does not perpetuate bias. Reddit is buying machine learning platform Spell

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