Cruise ceases robotaxi operations, the Apple Watch will get a brand new function and Carta tries to go off dangerous press

Good day, ghouls and goblins, and welcome to this Halloween Weekend version of Week in Overview (WiR), TechCrunch’s weekly tech recap in e-newsletter kind. For our U.S.-based readers (and this reporter), ’tis the time for mid-autumn merrymaking — time-tested traditions like jack-o’-lantern carving, costuming and apple choosing. Could all of us profit from it.

On this concern of WiR, we cowl the California DMV suspending Cruise’s robotaxi allow, doing bills in VR, the Apple Watch’s finest new function going dwell and an e-commerce startup based by an ex-PayPal exec that goals to provide clients extra management over their buying knowledge. Elsewhere, we highlight the victims of Okta’s newest hack, Carta’s CEO making an attempt to go off dangerous press, the most recent from the FTX trial and Rivian successful the longest off-road competitors within the U.S.

It’s quite a bit to get by, so let’s not delay. However first, a reminder to enroll right here to obtain WiR in your inbox each Saturday should you haven’t already accomplished so.

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Cruising no extra: The California Division of Motor Automobiles on Tuesday suspended Cruise’s deployment and driverless testing permits, ending the GM self-driving automobile subsidiary’s robotaxi operations in San Francisco. Subsequently, Cruise introduced that it could pause all of its robotaxi operations, together with in Austin, Houston, Phoenix and Miami, to “rebuild public belief.”

Expensing meets VR: Intrepid TC editor Darrell Etherington did his expensing in Concur utilizing Meta’s newest headset, the Quest 3. So how’d it go? Concur “nonetheless sucks tremendous exhausting in VR,” Darrell writes — however surprisingly, Concur didn’t suck any greater than it does in additional standard computing environments, and he truly loved doing a lot of the associated, “regular laptop” issues on Quest 3.

Double faucet that: With this week’s watchOS 10.1 drop, Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Apple Watch Extremely 2 homeowners now have entry to one of many smartwatches’ extra thrilling options. Double Faucet, which provides gesture-based interactions by tapping one’s index finger and thumb collectively twice, is a intelligent new solution to work together with the wearable when your different hand is full, Brian writes.

Retail your means: Mary Ann writes about I Personal My Information (IOMD), a startup based by an ex-PayPal exec aiming to eradicate a tedious step for purchasers: creating an account each time you buy one thing from a web-based retailer. With IOMD, all of a consumer’s non-public data, corresponding to previous purchases, playing cards, addresses and preferences, are saved on their very own gadget — so transactions will be accomplished immediately with a click on, faucet or contact wherever on the net.

Okta hack fallout: Community and safety big Cloudflare and password supervisor maker 1Password stated hackers briefly focused their methods following a latest breach of Okta’s help unit. Each Cloudflare and 1Password stated their intrusions have been linked to the hack of Okta, the identification and entry administration platform, however that the incidents didn’t have an effect on buyer methods or consumer knowledge.

Carta fights again: In an try at harm management, Henry Ward, the CEO of the fairness administration startup Carta, this week emailed clients, telling them that in the event that they’re involved about “destructive press” tied to the outfit, they need to learn a latest Medium publish of his. Within the publish, Ward outlines conversations he’s had with Carta workers about quite a few tales surrounding the corporate, together with tales about lawsuits round allegations of sexual abuse on the a part of executives, a poisonous “boy’s membership tradition” and indecent publicity, amongst different issues.

FTX execs probably escape jail: Gary Wang, co-founder and CTO of failed crypto alternate FTX; Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda, FTX’s sister firm; and Nishad Singh, FTX head of engineering, have all pleaded responsible to prices after the alternate and Alameda’s dramatic downfall in November 2022. However an ex-Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutor, talking to TechCrunch’s blockchain reporter Jacquelyn Melinek, says that Ellison, Wang and Singh most likely received’t get jail time, as they’ve been cooperating witnesses.

Rivian comes out forward: In a win for Rivian, the Amazon-backed startup’s R1T is the primary EV to win the longest off-road competitors within the U.S., the Rebelle Rally. The race — now in its eighth 12 months — requires groups to finish a 2,120-kilometer course utilizing solely paper maps, compasses and plotters, Kirsten writes.

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On the lookout for background listening materials as you make costume alterations, paint pumpkins and restock the sweet jar? TechCrunch has you coated — as all the time.

On Fairness, the crew coated a couple of offers of the week, together with information from I Personal My Information and AgentSync. Different big-ticket gadgets included Carta’s comms snafu, the latest roadblock for Cruise driverless taxis (and why Waymo seems to be successful) and notes on Alphabet’s and Microsoft’s latest earnings.

Discovered spoke with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics, a Norwegian firm that’s constructed an information platform that powers instruments and merchandise for sustainable threat administration. Their fashions predict the paths of floodwaters, which permit them to foretell and map the harm that outcomes.

And Chain Response interviewed Josh Naftalis, accomplice at regulation agency Pallas Companions. Naftalis is a longtime legal professional who represents corporations, boards and executives in instances for white-collar prison protection, regulatory enforcement issues, inner investigations, disaster administration and extra.

TechCrunch+

TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which should you’re already a subscriber. If you happen to’re not, take into account signing up. Listed here are a couple of highlights from this week:

Spam will get worse: Haje writes about how AI-powered instruments are making gross sales emails, phishing and spam worse for all of us — notably instruments that plug into social media to construct an image of what could be occurring of their targets’ lives.

AI-boosted advertisements: Alex and Anna write that Huge Tech companies with large attain have been raking in large advert bucks, currently — notably these with AI chops, which has made their skill to drag in promoting {dollars} even stronger.

Seed offers turn into dear: Why are seed offers so costly nowadays? Alex writes that speedy progress is accountable; late-stage offers have gotten rarer and smaller and cheaper at this time, conversely.