Week in Review: The ‘smart home’ is still so, so stupid

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again.

Last week was a short one, but I talked about the merger of a couple of the worst adtech companies in the world.

If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox here, and follow my tweets here.

I would also like to take the time to say screw you to Apple for shipping such an awful keyboard that made typing this newsletter so damn difficult…. God! Now, onto the news.


The big story

One thing I rarely cover these days is the smart home, this, despite my apartment hosting two HomePods, two Echos, three Google Home devices and a Facebook Portal+.

I’m dying for this stuff to be useful and fun, and, instead, after a few years of playing with the stuff, I just have a handful of commands that I shout out every so often. All of my digital friends can turn on my lights, turn on my TV, play music, tell me the time and weather and a few other things that probably weren’t worth the thousands of dollars it took to bring them and their accompanying IoT gadgets into my home.

In short, I’m an idiot. On Tuesday, Google will again show off its Pixel 4 smartphone but also its latest visions for the Google Home/Nest line.

I’ve witnessed a few improvements since the first Google Home was announced nearly 3 years ago. After several hardware iterations from Google, Amazon and Facebook, these devices have gotten better looks, better sound and better voices — occasionally courtesy of celebrity partnerships. These devices are growing more capable in distinguishing user voices and offering feedback based on their individual data.

At the same time, home virtual assistants still feel awfully alien and firmly stuck in the 1.0 era.

The Google Home still feels like a flip phone with its basic set of stock apps. Third-party integrations are sparse and largely useless. Plenty of things are “possible” through smart home integrations, but every added set of rails turns the device into a Swiss army knife, rather than a “new computing platform.” Google has seemingly had to reorganize some of its devices around IoT with its Nest renaming just to give them a more cohesive mission.

This is partially an AI problem, but it seems like that element is overplayed when considering long-term potential. Saying a device should “just know” what to say is hardly a suggestion and there isn’t enough context in the world for a virtual assistant to annoy me less with unheeded guidance or advice. There’s just such a narrow runway for success in using these devices as predictive engines, something that severely impedes their potential as commerce or ad platforms. Even adding a screen has failed to help this along.

This isn’t a shot at Google any more than it is against Amazon, Facebook and Apple. The only reason I give Google shit here is because I generally like their products the most. The Home boasts by far the most intelligent assistant in my experience; I am still shocked by some of the answers it can pull out of its hat that are leaps and bounds past my HomePod’s Siri capabilities.

But that still isn’t enough.

I want to be bullish on these devices and voice interfaces as a platform, but they are so painfully unimpressive after several years even as natural language processing has made impressive advances. They are great to demo and are fun to play with but I can’t help but wonder whether this is just an endless march towards further marginal utility, not “the future.”

I will be watching to see what Google releases, my colleague Brian has summed up some of his expectations for the Pixel event.

Send me feedback
on Twitter @lucasmtny or email
lucas@techcrunch.com

On to the rest of the week’s news.

HKMaplive

Trends of the week

Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context:

  • Apple pulls HKMap from App Store
    Apple has found itself smack dab in the middle of a PR crisis that’s pissing off pretty much everybody. Apple’s app store approval, rejection, approval and seemingly final rejection of HKMap has been quite the saga.
  • Playstation 5 is coming Holiday 2020
    Sony has been teasing little dribbles of its next-generation console, but we at least have some idea of when its coming as well as a few of its distinguishing features.
  • The Catalina wine mixer
    This release seems to be pretty meh overall, but there are some decent additions like Sidecar, which my colleague Brian Heater is still psyched about in his full review of the new OS update.

trump zuckerberg 1

(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

GAFA Gaffes

How did the top tech companies screw up this week? This clearly needs its own section, in order of badness:

  1. Facebook is very chill with advertising political lies:
    [Facebook sure does love free $peech]
  2. Apple has long complied with local governments, but it couldn’t seem to make up its mind on this one:
    [Apple pulls HKMap from App Store the day after Chinese state media criticized its ‘unwise and reckless decision’ to approve it]

What to expect from Google’s hardware event

Sign up for more newsletters in your inbox (including this one) here.


Source: Tech Crunch

AI-based firefighter safety startup Prometeo wins IBM Call for Code Challenge

During an event at the United Nations Delegates Dining Room in New York City, IBM unveiled the winners to its annual  Call for Code Global Challenge. The competition, which is targeted at computing solutions for global problems, crowned five winners, ranging from first responders to health care info.

Prometeo took the top price for its Watson-based AI solution targeted at firefighters. The team, which is lead by a 33-year firefighting veteran, has developed a tool designed to monitor health and safety in the industry, both long term and in real-time. The Spanish startup developed a smartphone-sized device that straps onto the wearer’s arm to gauge things like temperature, smoke and humidity.

“If the color signal is green, the health of the firefighter is okay,” cofounder Salomé Valero explains on IBM’s site. “But if the color signal is yellow or red, the command center must do something. They must take immediate action in order to rescue or remove the firefighter from the fire.”

The team is working to roll out the device for testing in Spain, but is currently seeking funding for the project. The $200,000 prize from IBM ought to help out a bit.

The second place price went to India/China/US-based Sparrow, which has developed a platform for addressing physical and psychological health during natural disasters. U.C.L.A. team, Rove scored third place with a similar concept.

Call for Code is a five year program that aims to hand out $30 million for teams addressing widespread societal issues.


Source: Tech Crunch

Google’s Pixel 4 briefly went up for preorder on Best Buy Canada

The Pixel 4 is set to be unveiled at an event on Tuesday. This much we know for sure. We know a bunch more, too, (as outlined in this rumor roundup from yesterday), thanks to both official reveals and unofficial leaks. How much of this was planned is hard to say, but Google seemingly doesn’t mind building up the hype cycle.

Earlier today, Best Buy Canada made what may well be the most egregious reveal today (granted, there are three more days left to leak). The big box store posted up a preorder page for the upcoming smartphone. As expected, the listing was taken down, but not before 9to5Google managed to snap some screen shots.

From the looks of things, the rumors are pretty spot on. The device will come in both standard and XL versions, at 5.7 and 6.3 inches, respectively. Both models sport a Snapdradon 855, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, along with a new Face Unlock feature. There are dual camera on each, per the listing — 12 and 16 megapixels — in the iPhone 11-esque square configuration.

pixel 4 specs leak

There’s a single front-facing 8 megapixel camera on each, and a 2,800 and 3,700mAh battery on the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Other highlights including the expected addition of “Quick Gestures,” which use use a wave of the hand to interact with the device — similar to features we’ve seen on other handsets before.

Conspicuously missing from the preorder, however, is the expected “Oh So Orange” color. Could be a preorder thing or maybe Best Buy Canadian customers will have to settle for Just Black and Clearly White. Maybe the company is saving some surprises for Tuesday’s event. Maybe.


Source: Tech Crunch

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a solid smartwatch for Android users

Samsung makes good, underrated smartwatches. It’s just been difficult to get much attention in a category so utterly dominated by a single player. Even still, the company has managed to hold onto the number two spot in global market share, according to recentish numbers. At 11.1 percent, it’s a little less than a third of what Apple’s been able to generate.

The line has been a fairly stark contrast to Apple’s offerings. Samsung’s smartwatch philosophy is in line with its mobile counterpart: offer variety and don’t be afraid to try new things. Compare that to the Apple Watch’s annual improvements. The company offers one, key product, opting to make a little bit better, piece by piece.

Announced at the Unpacked event that gave us the S10 back in February, the Galaxy Watch Active presented a streamlining of the line. And simplified —and, most notably, cheaper — take on the Tizen-powered wearable line. Honestly, that $200 price point was really the key, putting the device in line with Fitbit’s relatively recent foray into the category.

CMB 8314

A mere six months later, it returned with the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The device brings a smattering of upgrades, including improved heart rate monitoring (with the ECG sensor currently still in beta) and the addition of both an LTE model and a larger 44mm version. Thankfully, it maintains a streamlined design that’s a welcome alternative to some of Samsung’s bigger, bulkier offerings. 

Oddly, the company has opted to move away from the rotating mechanical bezel with the Active line, which has long been Samsung’s key differentiator in the category — perhaps in the spirit of maintaining that kind of minimalism, The rotating mechanical bezel is, simply put, the best way I’ve come across for interfacing with smartwatches, including Apple’s crown.

The Active 2 attempts to adapt the feature into a digital version with haptic feedback. Essentially you swipe around the outer edge f the device and haptics simulate the clicking of the wheel. It works better than I’d initially anticipated, but the lack of the original feature is still pretty glaring. Here’s hoping the company rethinks the omission for future versions.

CMB 8321

As with the latest Apple Watch, there’s an always on screen option, though it’s going to take its toll on battery life. With the feature off, however, I was able to get more than two days life on a single charge, which isn’t too shabby. That’s better than Apple, though both companies are still well behind what Fitbit’s able to get out of a device.

Honestly, in 2019, all smartphone makers should be pushing for ways to get more life on a charge — especially those offering some form of sleep tracking. Now that other features like ECG have begun to become ubiquitous, this ought to be the next big push for the industry at large.

My Style is a fun, but ultimately unnecessary trick, wherein the app lets you tailor the color of a watch face using a smartphone photo of what you’re wearing. The app selection is still pretty limited, compared to Apple’s offering, though some key features like Spotify are here. That now includes offline playlists. Other key apps like YouTube have been improved as well.

CMB 8319

It’s hard to imagine the company catching up to an Apple on the third-party app side, but Samsung’s long had one key advantage over the Apple Watch: Android compatibility. And with Google’s Wear OS being fairly consistently underwhelming, Samsung’s got some real opportunity to capture even more marketshare.

It would be nice if the Active Watch 2 was a bit more aggressively priced. Apple’s decision to keep older units around means you can pick up, say the Series 3 for $200. There’s also the $200 Fitbit Versa 2. Some may find the $280 price point worth it for the (forthcoming) addition of things like ECG, but for most consumers, the $200 original Watch Active continues to be the better deal.


Source: Tech Crunch

California’s Privacy Act: What you need to know now

This week California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, published draft guidance for enforcing the state’s landmark privacy legislation.

The draft text of the regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will undergo a public consultation period, including a number of public hearings, with submissions open until December 6 this year.

The CCPA itself will take effect in the state on January 1, with a further six months’ grace period before enforcement of the law begins.

“The proposed regulations are intended to operationalize the CCPA and provide practical guidance to consumers and businesses subject to the law,” writes the State of California’s Department of Justice in a press release announcing the draft text. “The regulations would address some of the open issues raised by the CCPA and would be subject to enforcement by the Department of Justice with remedies provided under the law.”

Translation: Here’s the extra detail we think is needed to make the law work.

The CCPA was signed into law in June 2018 — enshrining protections for a sub-set of US citizens against their data being collected and sold without their knowledge.

The law requires businesses over a certain user and/or revenue threshold to disclose what personal data they collect; the purposes they intend to use the data for; and any third parties it will be shared with; as well as requiring that they provide a discrimination-free opt-out to personal data being sold or shared.

Businesses must also comply with consumer requests for their data to be deleted.


Source: Tech Crunch

The Yeti X brings real-time level monitoring to the popular USB mic

It’s clear why Logitech bought Blue back in July 2018. The Southern Californian audio company (an acronym for “Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics,” incidentally) has become synonymous with USB microphones since releasing the first Snowball back in 2005.

What seemed like a niche at the time has since become a cultural touchstone, positioning the company well to be embraced first by podcasters and then Twitch streamers. Blue’s USB mics aren’t the highest quality one can purchase for these purposes, but the plug and play functionality felt fairly revolutionary when it first hit the scene.

The company recently issued a long overdue update to its best-selling Yeti. The Yeti X is, for most intents and purposes a pretty subtle update. I’ve been using it a bit here and there for a couple of week now. I recorded the outro to the latest episode of my podcast on the thing and lent it to Anthony for a couple of episodes of Original Content.

Blue Yeti X

Aside from from the spiffy black paint job, the biggest aesthetic change is the addition of a real-time LED meter that’s housed around the illuminating volume nob. It’s a small touch, but an important one for live streamers. This matter of monitoring is largely missing or a pain to access in many streaming apps, so there’s a lot to be said for being able to your levels on the fly, adjusting things back down if you peak into the red.

The sound has been improved, from three to four-capsule condensers. Yeti’s sound was already solid for the world of USB microphones, and it’s nice to see the company continue to up its game there. Some of its recent mics like the Yeti Nano have honestly felt like a step backward. The X sounds crisp, and I fully plan to use it for an upcoming remote podcasting project I have in the pipeline.


Likely I’ll look into some sort of pop filter as well — those Ps can sound pretty harsh.

It still can’t replace a good quality studio microphone, but that’s never really been the point. If you have the means and desire to create real a home podcasting studio, you’re probably looking elsewhere for your mic needs. The Yeti exists for a large and broadening category of home broadcasters — part-time Twitch streamers and podcast hobbyist will find a lot to like here.

CMB 8101

Blue has its own software for tweaking setting, but the key is honestly the ability to essentially use it straight out of the box. Per the instructions, however, make sure to point the top of the mic straight up, rather than toward your face as you might otherwise logically do.the standard four settings on the back: stereo, cardioid, omnidirectional and bidirectional. For most podcast style applications, you’re going to want to go with the second. The oddest oversight here is the decision to stick with microUSB over the USB-C. Shipping with a dual sided USB-C cable would go a ways toward future proofing the product.

At $169, the Yeti X is positioned pretty reasonable for beginnings and is certainly a better long term investment than the $70 Snowball.


Source: Tech Crunch

Startups Weekly: YC grad Revel’s plan to connect women over 50

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. I’ve been on a bit of a startup profile kick as of late. Last week, I was tired from Disrupt. Before that, I wrote about up and coming telemedicine company Alpha Medical.

Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to kate.clark@techcrunch.com or on Twitter @KateClarkTweets. If you don’t subscribe to Startups Weekly yet, you can do that here.


Startup Spotlight

Y Combinator’s latest batch concluded two months ago, which means my inbox is beginning to fill with pitches from companies ready to talk about the first rounds of fundraising. We’ve profiled many of the companies already, like Tandem, Narrator, SannTek Labs and more to come.

This week, I have some notes on Revel, a recent grad from the hot accelerator network that plans to create a nationwide subscription-based network tailored to women over the age of 50. The startup’s founders, Harvard Business School graduates Lisa Marron and Alexa Wahl, say there are no good existing options in the market to help women in this demographic foster new relationships.

Revel

“I think a lot of the things that exist are nonprofits that are a little antiquated now,” Marron tells TechCrunch. “I think we saw that those are really serving the need of our members’ parents’ generation, but they haven’t really adapted as much to the modern age.”

Women 50 years and older can become a member of Revel. For now, the service is free, though the company plans to charge a $100 annual fee in the coming months. Currently, Revel’s community includes 500 women. With a $2.5 million funding led by Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green, the small team plans to expand within the Bay Area. They said they won’t begin establishing Revel outside the region until they raise a Series A.

It’s hard to imagine women will stay committed to paying an annual Revel membership, considering the real value comes from the company’s ability to facilitate introductions to like-minded women. Once those introductions have been made, women can discontinue their membership and develop relationships outside the service. Forerunner Ventures, however, is known for backing successful and prominent brands, like Glossier, Warby Parker and Outdoor Voices. My guess is Revel has ambitions to become the brand representing women over 50 seeking meaningful connections.

“We want to take this wide in a short number of years because we feel there is a need and opportunity to build this strong community for women of this age; venture capital in that sense was rocket fuel,” adds Marron.


VC rounds


M&A

  • Uber plans to buy a majority stake in a Latin American grocery delivery business called Cornershop. The Chilean startup was founded in 2015 by Oskar Hjertonsson, Daniel Undurraga and Juan Pablo Cuevas. It will continue to operate under that leadership in its current form for now, says Uber.
  • To beat Amazon Go, Standard Cognition is buying DeepMagic, a pioneer in autonomous retail kiosks. “The $86 million-funded Standard Cognition is racing to equip storefronts with an independent alternative using cameras to track what customers grab and charge them. But Amazon’s early start in the space poses a risk that it could patent troll the startup,” writes TechCrunch’s Josh Constine.

Extra Crunch

Extra Crunch subscribers have a lot to chew on this week. Reminder, if you haven’t yet signed up for our premium content service, you still can here.

This week, I wrote about the importance of having a culture expert on staff at a venture capital firm. Increasingly, startups are being judged for their cultures, diversity of staff and more. VCs, for the most part, are unprepared to help their companies foster more inclusive environments, and that’s a problem. One firm, True Ventures, has taken a big step toward holding their companies accountable for culture and giving them real resources to help them improve things early. I talked to True Ventures’ Madeline Kolbe Saltzman about her new title, VP of Culture.


Equity

I took a break from Equity this week, but my co-host Alex Wilhelm was in studio with IPO expert James Clark. Listen to the excellent conversation here.

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.


Source: Tech Crunch

Brad Feld: what founders need to know about recent changes in VC deal terms

Extra Crunch offers members the opportunity to tune into conference calls led and moderated by the TechCrunch writers you read every day. This week, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos hopped on the line with prominent investor, entrepreneur, thought leader, and Techstars co-founder Brad Feld to discuss the latest edition of his book “Venture Deals”, his advice to founders and investors, and his take on hot button issues of the day (including dual-class shares, direct listings, and what happened at WeWork).

In their conversation, Brad and Connie discuss the need to know information when it comes to preparing for, structuring and executing venture deals, and how that information has changed over the past several decades. Feld walks through the major topics that have been added in the latest edition of the book, such as how to handle venture debt, as well as tactical attributes that aren’t currently in the book, such as secondary market trading.

Brad also gives his take on the most effective fundraising tactics for founders, and what common pieces of advice might be overblown.

Brad Feld: “I think the approach to the amount of money that you’re raising is both nuanced and evolves based on what financing round you’re at. So if you’re in an early round, some of the characteristics are different than if you’re in a later round. But I think the general truism… that I like to use when people say, “Well, how much money should I raise?”

I start with two variables and you the entrepreneur get to define those two variables. The two variables are: the amount of money you raise and what getting to the next level means. The amount of money you should raise is the amount of money that you need to get your business to the next level. There are lots of different ways to define what next level is and by forcing yourself internally to define next level and then define what you need in terms of capital to get to that next level… when you’re raising that first round of financing or even the second or third round of financing, it helps you size rationally what you need versus reactively to whatever the market characteristics are.

I actually encourage entrepreneurs to raise the least amount of money they need to get to the next level, or at least that’s the number that they go out to market with. Not a range, not a big number because you’re trying to drive some kind of valuation characteristic off a big number, but the amount of money that you actually think you need to get to the next level. Then if you can be oversubscribed, that’s an awesome situation.”

Feld and Connie dive deeper into current issues in the startup and venture landscape, including Brad’s take on the impact of the SoftBank Vision Fund, what went down at internally and externally at both WeWork and Uber, as well as how boards, executives and founders can manage cult of personality and static company cultures.

For access to the full transcription and the call audio, and for the opportunity to participate in future conference calls, become a member of Extra Crunch. Learn more and try it for free. 

Connie Loizos: I think the last time I saw you in person was out here in San Francisco at an event I was hosting and that was maybe two years ago?

Brad Feld: Yup, that’s right. That was at the Autodesk Lab if I remember correctly.

Loizos: Yes. It’s good to hear your voice, and thank you for joining us on this call. We have a lot of readers who are big fans of yours that are on the line and are eager to learn about your book “Venture Deals” and your broader thoughts about the current state of the market. And that said, I know you only have so much time, so let’s dive first into the book. So ‘Wiley’, your publisher has just put out the fourth edition of this book “Venture Deals”, and it’s really easy to appreciate why. I was looking through it and it’s so incredibly useful about how venture deals come together and possible pitfalls to avoid. And given there are always new entrepreneurs emerging, it continues to be highly relevant.

Can I ask you, so how do you go about updating a book like this, given that some things change and some things stay the same?


Source: Tech Crunch

Electric moped startup Revel could expand to Texas next

Revel, the New York-based shared electric moped startup, appears to be preparing to expand into Texas, according to job listings first spotted and reported by Thinknum Alternative Data.

The expansion into Texas would be Revel’s fourth market and its first west of the Mississippi River, a move that would be consistent with comments CEO and co-founder Frank Reig made earlier this week to TechCrunch.

Revel, which launched in 2018, has more than 1,400 mopeds in Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn and Queens, New York. The company announced Thursday that it raised $27.6 million in a Series A round led by Ibex Investors. The equity round included newcomer Toyota AI Ventures and further investments from Blue Collective, Launch Capital and Maniv Mobility.

Revel plans to use the funds to expand its fleet of scooters within the cities it currently operates as well as  into new markets. Reig wouldn’t name where Revel will launch next. However, he provided a few hints.

Revel is targeting about 10 cities by mid-2020, Reig said in an interview earlier this week. He added that likely candidates would be major U.S. cities with temperate weather conditions. That puts cities in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California as likely destinations.

Thinknum, which tracks companies and creates data sets that measure hiring, revenue and other factors, charted out job listings at Revel. What the company found was nearly a dozen jobs posted since July that will be based in Texas.

While Revel’s job listings point to Texas, the company isn’t ready to talk.

“We can’t confirm specific launch timelines right now, but Revel is having productive conversations with markets in Texas among other places,” a company spokesperson said in response to TechCrunch’s inquiry. “We look forward to bringing our service to new cities in the coming months.”

Revel is different from other shared mobility-as-a-service providers, especially scooter companies, because it doesn’t use gig economy or contract workers. It only employs full-time workers. This would suggest that Revel isn’t merely experimenting with Texas; it has intentions to build out operations there.

The job listings include openings for a manager, mechanic and customer service support. Some of these jobs actually list Texas City, Texas as the destination. It’s not clear if this is actually where Revel will deploy. Texas City is about 42 miles southeast of Houston.


Source: Tech Crunch

Instacart shoppers are organizing a nationwide protest

Instacart has long been at odds with its shoppers — the people who go to the grocery store on behalf of customers. From November 3-5, thousands of Instacart shoppers plan to protest with three demands. They want Instacart to change the default tip amount to at least 10%, ditch the service fee and commit to always giving 100% of the tip to the shopper.

“We did not arrive at the 10% figure arbitrarily, rather this is what the default tip amount was back when I and many others started working for Instacart,” Vanessa Bain, an Instacart shopper wrote on Medium this week. “We are simply demanding the restoration of what was originally promised.”

Back in 2016, Instacart removed the option to tip in favor of guaranteeing its workers higher delivery commissions. About a month later, following pressure from its workers, the company reintroduced tipping. Then, in April 2018, Instacart began suggesting a 5% default tip and reduced its service fee from a 10% waivable fee to a 5% fixed fee.

“We take the feedback of the shopper community very seriously and remain committed to listening to and using that feedback to improve their experience,” an Instacart spokesperson told TechCrunch.

This protest is on the heels of a class-action lawsuit over wages and tips, as well as a tipping debacle where Instacart included tips in its base pay for shoppers. Instacart, however, has since stopped that practice and provided shoppers with back pay. Though, Fast Company recently reported that Instacart delivery drivers’ tips are mysteriously decreasing.

But it’s a new day for gig economy workers — at least in California. Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law gig worker protections bill AB-5. This legislation will make it harder for gig economy companies to classify their workers as 1099 independent contractors when it goes into effect in January. The victory came after gig workers made their voices heard through protests and other direct actions.

What’s clear at this point is that workers are refusing to stay silent and are more than willing to advocate for themselves. Organizers of the Instacart protest have outlined three ways for shoppers to get involved. The more active approach would entail shoppers signing up for as many hours as possible from November 3 -5, but keep letting the batches time out. The more passive approach entails not signing up for any hours at all, and not accepting any on-demand batches.

“Despite loyalty to Instacart and the customers we’ve gotten to know over the years, many of us have been forced to find other gigs to make ends meet,” Bain wrote. “But not all Shoppers are so lucky or even have the ability to be so fluid with their careers or their time. A large portion of the working body are single parents, caregivers, are disabled or have other conditions or obligations that would make getting other work difficult or impossible. Instacart is highly aware of this and weaponizes this fact against us when turning the pay dials lower and lower.”


Source: Tech Crunch