Week in Review: Jeff Bezos’ secret EV startup

Summary

Welcome back to Week in Review! We’ve got tons of cool stuff for your reading pleasure this week: Jeff Bezos backs EV startup Slate; a Meta whistleblower accuses the company of collusion; Waymo may use interior camera data; and much more. Let’s get to it! I want this: Slate, an EV startup, has the ambitious goal of building an affordable two-seater pickup truck for the attractive price of $25,000. It’s amassed a sizable war chest in service of that goal, backed by Jeff Bezos, and hopes to get its vehicle into production as soon as late 2026. China collusion: Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former head of global public policy who wrote a book about her time at Facebook, testified before the U.S. Senate this week. Her testimony was spicy, as you can imagine. According to Wynn-Williams, Facebook, now known as Meta, worked directly with the Chinese Communist Party to “undermine U.S. national security and betray American values,” she said. Wait, what? Trevor Milton, the Nikola founder who was recently pardoned after being convicted of securities fraud, is trying to buy the assets of his former company out of bankruptcy. It’s unclear if any other parties submitted bids for Nikola’s assets. This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, where we recap the week’s biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. News Image Credits:Getty Images Say “cheese”: According to an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy, the self-driving car company is planning to use data from its robotaxis, including video from interior cameras tied to rider identities, to train generative AI models. Users will apparently be able to opt out. Back, back, back again: President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that endorses coal for data center power. The government will be directed to designate coal as a critical mineral and prevent the closure of some coal-fired power plants, requiring them to continue operating. How to be rich: A breach of Berkshir...