Techcrunch blog!: Hertz wants to sell 20,000 electric vehicles

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Welcome back to today's Daily Crunch. In this edition, Hertz slashes its electric vehicle fleet, there's trouble at Google and a geofence warrant was issued in San Francisco. Let's dive in.

Image Credits: Hertz

Daily Crunch Top 3

In today's top story, Sean reports that Hertz plans to sell off 20,000 of its electric vehicles, citing lower demand for EVs and higher-than-expected repair costs. Who had that on their 2024 Bingo card?

Meanwhile, Ivan and Kate write that Google cuts hundreds of jobs across many of its divisions. A spokesperson said the layoffs were the result of some of the teams making changes "to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities." Read more.

And Zack reports on what happened when a federal law enforcement agency requested a nearly two-mile-long geofence warrant in San Francisco. Get the scoop.

Image Credits: TechCrunch / via ACLU

More top reads

Speaking of Google: Aside from the layoffs, there was a bit of Google news today, including the removal of 17 "underutilized" features in Google Assistant, no more fees for transferring data out of Google Cloud and new generative AI tools for retailers.

CES 2024: We're continuing to bring you highlights from CES 2024 in Las Vegas. Here are a few of your favorites from today:

Taking a closer look at the Rownd tabletop CNC lathe

Hyundai's hydrogen Hail Mary (TC+)

Moustrap wants to bring some loving luxury to your mousing about

EyeQ takes a fresh look at video call eye contact

Car talk: First, Munich startup Finn is now valued at $658 million after raising $109 million to accelerate its car subscription platform that is gearing up for more electric vehicles. Next, Lucid Motors built over 8,000 luxury electric sedans in 2023, but it didn't sell all of them. Lucid, meet Finn. Finn, meet Lucid.

No more middleman: Overmoon emerged from stealth with a part Airbnb, part hotel marketplace that teams up travelers with vacation rental property owners. Overmoon owns the homes, and as a result, has more control over the quality and maintenance of the properties. It's the best of both worlds.

Meet Pier: The startup is building a "Stripe for credit" product. Developers add Pier's APIs with a few lines of code, and the company then manages the credit life cycle from end to end, including origination, underwriting, compliance and servicing. Learn more.

Is India done with crypto?: When cryptocurrency went mainstream, reports predicted India would be at the forefront of those who wanted to participate. My, how the tides have turned.

That old familiar tune: In Meta's continued bid to keep tracking and profiling users of Facebook and Instagram in Europe, in spite of the bloc's comprehensive data protection laws, the social media giant faces yet another challenge from a privacy rights advocacy group. Find out more.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking: iPhones always seem to fall in just the right way to crack the screen. So it's worth checking out how some iPhones from the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 managed to survive a 16,000-foot drop.

Even more for your Thursday:

BlackRock cuts Byju's valuation by 95% to $1 billion

FlutterFlow attracts cash for its low-code mobile app dev platform

State-backed hackers are exploiting new Ivanti VPN zero-days — but no patches yet

The United States' $1 trillion startup liquidity gap needs to be filled soon (TC+)

Image Credits: Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images

On the pods

Now that Bitcoin spot ETFs are a thing in the U.S., Jacquelyn interviewed Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO at Grayscale Investments, in this week's bonus episode of Chain Reaction. They discuss Grayscale's efforts to get this long-awaited approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Grayscale is a digital asset investment firm that aims to provide products and services to institutional and individual investors — it is well-known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and now its new bitcoin spot ETF product. Listen here.