Welcome, my friends, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering this week’s noteworthy tech events.
TikTok The fate of the United States seems uncertain after President Joe Biden signed a bill providing a deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to divest from TikTok within nine months or face a ban on its distribution in the United States. Ivan writes about how the impact of TikTok bans in other countries could signal what is to come in the United States.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the Change Healthcare hack continues. Change, a subsidiary of health insurance giant UnitedHealth, confirmed this week, the ransomware attack that targeted it earlier this year resulted in a massive theft of Americans’ private health information, possibly covering “a substantial proportion” of Americans.
And Tesla’s profits fell 55% as the electric vehicle maker faces increased pressure from hybrid car makers. The automaker’s growth plan is focused on mysterious cheaper electric vehicles scheduled to launch next year – as well as perhaps a robot taxi. But one recall on the Cybertruck faulty accelerator pedals certainly won’t help in the meantime.
Many other things happened. We recap it all in this edition of WiR — but first, a reminder to register to receive the WiR newsletter in your mailbox every Saturday.
News
Amazon Grocery Plan: Amazon has launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription in the United States. The plan, which costs $9.99 per month for Amazon Prime users, includes free deliveries on grocery orders over $35 from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and other local grocery retailers .
Californian drones grounded: In other Amazon news, the tech giant confirmed it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second drone delivery site in the United States after College Station, Texas; Amazon did not provide any details about this setback.
Fisker plans layoffs: Fisker says he plans more layoffs less than two months later eliminating 15% of its workforce, as the EV startup scrambles to raise funds to stay alive. Fisker hopes to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days if he can’t raise the money.
Extension of the bands: Among a host of other announcements made at its Sessions conference in San Francisco, Stripe said it would decouple payments from the rest of its financial services stack. Given that Stripe previously required businesses to be payment service customers in order to use any of its other products, this is a major change.
Analysis
The rabbit gets his hands dirty: Brian writes about the R1, the first gadget from AI startup R1. The $199 price, touchscreen, and funky aesthetic from popular design firm Teenage Engineering make the R1 much more accessible than Ai of Humane Pinhe concludes.
Lab diamonds: Pascal, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, claims it can make high-end jewelry accessible using lab-grown diamonds that are chemically and physically similar to natural diamonds, but cost one-twentieth the price.
AI Poetry: An experiment called the Poetry camera – a real physical camera – combines open source technology with playful design and artistic vision. Instead of simply capturing images, the Poetry Camera curates thought-provoking AI-generated stanzas based on the visuals it encounters.
Deep, undulating dive: Connie interviewed Parker Conrad, CEO of workforce management startup Rippling, about the company’s new $200 million funding round, the new lease in San Francisco (the second largest to be signed in the city this year) and much more.
