Monday, September 23, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! Today we are looking into the White House's long-awaited proposal to ban Chinese smart cars; a new initiative from Cloudflare that would connect AI companies with websites willing to be scraped; and new features for Google products and TikTok users. Let's do it!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Rivian

🎁 Under wraps: Rivian has kept the details of where the Rivian Foundation would prioritize and invest under wraps ever since the company's incredible IPO three years ago. Read more

🚙 Hidden consequences: The White House issued a long-expected proposal today to ban Chinese smart cars because they pose a national security risk. This proposal won't just affect Chinese companies, though. Read more

🦾 AI scrapers: Cloudflare announced plans to launch a marketplace next year that will connect AI models and companies that are willing to let AI scrape their websites for data to train on. AI companies will have to pay for this access. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Google TV

📺 Google TV: Tomorrow Google will release Google TV Streamer, the company's final Chromecast device. And today the company is releasing a bunch of new features for all of its Google TV devices, both new and old. Read more

💃 Content creators: TikTok announced today that it redesigned its "Subscription" monetization offering. This is great news for creators but bad news for the numerous startups trying to get TikTok creators to monetize their fans on a separate platform. Read more

🚘 More range: While some consumers want fully electric vehicles, many are also looking for better hybrid options. Electric RV company Thor came to this conclusion, too. Today it unveiled its new hybrid RV, which it claims has 500 miles of range. Read more

🛥️ It's electric! Speaking of electric vehicles, Devin Coldewey looks at Zin, a company making electric watercraft. It will reveal a new boat that will act as a tender to the hydrogen-powered megayacht commissioned by Bill Gates. Read more

🐇 Too little, too late? The much-hyped Rabbit r1 exploded onto the tech scene earlier this year before flaming out just as fast. The company is releasing an update this month that should fix some of the device's shortcomings. Read more

🧐 Unwanted surprise: Kaspersky customers received a surprise forced update on their computers. The cybersecurity software was automatically replaced with a new one called UltraAV. Read more

🦅 Soaring out of stealth: A much-anticipated new AI startup made in UC Berkeley's famed labs startup factory came out of stealth today. It announced $10 million in seed money led by Felicis' Astasia Myers at a $70 million post-money valuation. Read more

Around the web

📱 AI features: Way before Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC, companies have been building apps that use generative AI to help create text and images. The New York Times has a rundown for people who are still rocking an iPhone 14. Read more

🔐 About face: After quietly updating its website to allow abuse reports, Telegram has now updated its policy to say that it will provide user data to authorities that have a valid legal order. 404 Media has more