Lyft faces 17 lawsuits across 11 states from drivers and passengers accusing the company of failing to protect its users from sexual and physical assault (Kirsten Korosec/TechCrunch)

TechCrunch:
Despite the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 batch has 30 crypto startups, up from 25 in its Winter 2022 batch  —  Crypto and web3 stands out in the Summer 2022 batch  —  Crypto founders have heard the saying a thousand times in the past few months …

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Tumblr updates its community guidelines to allow nudity, mature subject matter, and sexual themes, but retains its limits for sexually explicit acts  —  Tumblr has made an update it hinted at in September, changing its rules to allow nudity — but not sexually explicit images — on the platform.

Bloomberg:
Roblox and Discord are accused of enabling adult men to sexually and financially exploit a California girl in a lawsuit filed by a social media watchdog group  —  Roblox Corp. and Discord Inc. were accused of enabling adult men to sexually and financially exploit a California girl in a lawsuit filed by a social-media watchdog group.

Aarian Marshall / Wired:
PolicyLink study: California rideshare drivers make a net median of $6.20/hour after costs and could make an additional ~$10.50/hour if classified as employees  —  Uber and Lyft spent millions promoting a controversial ballot measure.  A new study suggests it has lowered driver wages.

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Sources: autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI, which raised billions in VC funding, is shutting down; top backers Ford and VW will absorb its parts and some staff  —  Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment, is shutting down …

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
BMW and Amazon partner to let BMW use Alexa’s technology to build its own voice assistant, coming to cars launching within the next two years  —  Amazon Alexa will be the foundation of BMW’s next-generation voice assistant, the companies announced Wednesday at Amazon’s annual Devices and Services launch event.