Threads hits 100M customers, pedestrians battle again towards AVs, and VanMoof skids astray

Hey, associates — welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s common roundup of the week in tech. If life’s gotten in the way in which of following the foremost tales on TC, don’t sweat it. You’ve come to the proper place.

On this version, we cowl the 19-year-old MIT dropout “changing gunpowder” for the protection trade, in addition to VanMoof, the e-bike darling, which paused gross sales as execs head for the exits. Elsewhere, robotaxi haters in San Francisco have been disabling AVs with visitors cones, Twitter CEO Elon Musk launched an AI group and Instagram’s Threads app reached 100 million downloads. Whew.

Learn on for extra of the highest tales from the week — and should you haven’t already, sign up here to get WiR in your inbox each Saturday.

Most learn

Hydrogen-powered defenses: Aria writes about Mach Industries, a protection startup that has captured the eye of VCs and the DoD. The corporate’s 19-year-old founder, Ethan Thornton, is spearheading the R&D of hydrogen-powered platforms for the navy, together with unmanned aerial automobiles, munitions and hydrogen-generation programs.

VanMoof skids off track: Dutch e-bike startup VanMoof sped into the mobility world with greater than $200 million in enterprise backing. However its fortune seems to have taken a flip for the more serious. The corporate stopped taking orders in late June, and sources declare that senior workers, together with the CEO and a co-founder, left government roles as VanMoof makes an attempt to safe a bridge spherical to stave off chapter.

Pedestrians fight back: A decentralized group of secure streets activists in San Francisco realized they’ll disable Cruise and Waymo robotaxis by inserting a visitors cone on a automobile’s hood — they usually’re encouraging others to do it, too. The protest comes within the lead-up to a listening to that may seemingly see Waymo and Cruise increase their robotaxi companies in San Francisco.

Threads hits another milestone: Regardless of missing options corresponding to put up search, direct messages and hashtags, Instagram’s text-based app and Twitter competitor Threads achieved the mark of 100 million sign-ups this week. The Twitter rival was launched on June 6 (or June 5 within the Americas), in keeping with a tracker.

Google Calendar gets availability sharing: This week, Google launched new scheduling-related options for Gmail with a Google Calendar integration, together with fast occasion creation and straightforward availability sharing. Gmail will now have a calendar icon on the backside of the dialog view, which can have two choices — “Create an occasion” and “Provide instances you’re free.”

Satellites get dodgy: Starlink satellites are making 1000’s of avoidance maneuvers as low Earth orbit turns into extra crowded — feeding worries {that a} catastrophic impression is inevitable. SpaceX’s orbital communication satellites carried out maneuvers simply over 25,000 instances within the six-month interval between December 1, 2022, and Might 21, 2023, double the variety of avoidance maneuvers that Starlink satellites made within the earlier reporting interval.

Making interstellar space travel a reality: House propulsion firm Pulsar Fusion has began building on a big nuclear fusion chamber in England because it races to grow to be the primary agency to fireside a nuclear fusion–powered propulsion system in area. Nuclear fusion propulsion tech, ought to it show commercially viable, might cut back the journey time to Mars by half and the time to Titan, Saturn’s moon, to 2 years as an alternative of 10.

Anthropic releases Claude 2: This week, Anthropic, the AI startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI execs, introduced the discharge of a brand new text-generating AI mannequin referred to as Claude 2. Anthropic claims that Claude 2 is superior to its predecessor, Claude 1.3, in a number of areas and is very succesful in duties like looking out throughout paperwork, summarizing, writing and coding and answering questions on explicit matters.

Audio

In the event you’re wanting for a podcast to go the time, look no additional than TechCrunch’s rising roster.

On Equity, the crew talked a few vary of matters, together with a brand new Chinese language AI mannequin that had them questioning who’s actually going to win the AI battle; Founders Fund scooping up a brand new companion; Connetic Ventures utilizing AI fashions to create a less-biased panorama for entrepreneurs; and the cooling tech layoffs and inflation.

And over at Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Maria Shen, a common companion on the funding crew at Electrical Capital, an early-stage enterprise agency targeted on crypto, blockchain, fintech and marketplaces. In March 2022, the agency introduced that it closed $1 billion for a pair of crypto funds — a $400 million automobile for making fairness investments in startups and a $600 million fund meant to speculate instantly in crypto tokens.

TechCrunch+

TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which you recognize should you’re already a subscriber. In the event you’re not, consider signing up. Listed below are a couple of highlights from this week:

Light at the end of the tunnel:“There’s good purpose to consider that the large correction in enterprise capital exercise that we’ve seen over the previous six quarters has run its course,” Alex writes.

Amazon and the brands it kills: Haje stories on the destiny of Digital Pictures Assessment, greatest often called DPReview, which was considered top-of-the-line assessment and information websites. Amazon acquired it in 2007, slowly changing the workers with contractors and freelancers till killing it in March.

ESG, safe for now: Company executives may be making quite a lot of noise about ESG (environmental, social and governance) — a few of it constructive, some not. However Tim writes that on the subject of buyers, sustainability issues seem like right here to remain.

---

Get your TechCrunch repair IRL. Be a part of us at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse your self in all issues startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo flooring, there’s one thing for everybody at Disrupt. Save as much as $600 once you purchase your go now by August 11, and save 15% on high of that with promo code WIR. Learn more.