Sean O’Kane

Sean O’Kane

@okane.fyi

Senior Reporter, Special Projects at TechCrunch. Formerly Bloomberg News and The Verge. Obsessed with public records and LLCs. Bad surfer. Reluctant karaoke participant. Send tips 🕵️‍♂️ Signal: okane.01 sean.okane@techcrunch.com

16.6K followers2K following5.1K posts

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Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

New investigation from me: Waymo and Zoox test drivers were injured dozens of times across 2024/2025 as a result of harsh braking -- often for no apparent reason -- or erratic movement by the autonomous vehicles. More on @techcrunch.com but a short thread below. techcrunch.com/2026/08/27/s...

techcrunch.comSprains, pain and whiplash: Waymo and Zoox test drivers are getting hurt as robotaxis scale | TechCrunchTest drivers for Waymo and Zoox sustained more than two dozen injuries in 2024 and 2025 from hard braking or other sudden movements made by the autonomous vehicles, according to a TechCrunch review of...

Sean O’Kane reposted

Tim Fernholz
@timfernholz.com

OpenAI and Anthropic say their models have refuted the Exponential Time Hypothesis. Huh? I spoke to @rrwilliams.bsky.social, the MIT computer scientist tapped by OpenAI to explain the results, about what it means and the new AI paradigm in research techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/f...

techcrunch.comFrontier AI labs say their models refuted the Exponential Time Hypothesis. What does that mean? | TechCrunchTechCrunch spoke to the MIT computer scientist charged with explaining OpenAI's latest mind-bending discovery

Sean O’Kane reposted

Nicole Foy
@nicolefoy.bsky.social

Don't forget! Some of our @propublica.org team behind our investigation & database into 500 + detained U.S. citizens will be joining @austinkocher.com in a live discussion about how we did this. Sign up below and join us at 1 Eastern!

Austin Kocher, PhD@austinkocher.com

Tomorrow at 1 pm ET I'm talking with the ProPublica team behind a database of 506 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents. Register at us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @propublica.org @cengizyar.com

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

talk about an n=1

Felix Hamer • electricfelix@electricfelix.eurosky.social

"In 2027, the all-new Ford Fathom™ electric truck will be the first EV from a U.S. automaker with an MSRP below $30,000 that does not need a separate wall-mounted inverter to supply over a projected 10 kW of AC power to a home." #alwaysbecharging #battchat www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articl...

Sean O’Kane reposted

Raphael Satter
@raphae.li

Scoop: The Israeli company Discover-Tech -- alleged to be at the center of a vast web of ad tech surveillance -- has been heavily targeting users of Elon Musk's Starlink, sources tell me. www.reuters.com/business/med...

reuters.comEXCLUSIVE: Alleged Israeli spy company heavily targeted Starlink users, sources sayExperts at a digital defense firm recently found that an Israeli ad tech company was heavily targeting users of ​Starlink's satellite internet service in a likely effort to spy on them, according to s...
Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

sorry it's very funny to post an S-1 that basically describes how you're developing a digital superintelligence tantamount to a god while also not doing optical character recognition on your co-founders' 8-page letter that opens it

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com

Anthropic officially files for its public debut

techcrunch.comAnthropic officially files for its public debutAnthropic has officially filed for an IPO, revealing soaring revenue, mounting losses, major enterprise adoption, and an unusual governance structure designed to preserve founder control and its AI safety mission.

Sean O’Kane reposted

Zack Whittaker
@zackwhittaker.com

I wrote about how two bugs in PHP almost burned the internet to the ground, why it broadly hasn't (yet), but how the PHP-ocalypse is likely to be the first in a wave of aging internet tech that *will* inevitably break — it's a matter of time. Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20261026...

techcrunch.comPHP-ocalypse: How two critical web bugs almost broke the internet | TechCrunchTwo critical bugs in the PHP web programming language, used by the majority of the internet, threatened to upend the internet — and it's unlikely to be the last major software scare.

Sean O’Kane reposted

Alison Killing
@alisonkilling.bsky.social

Replying to @alisonkilling.bsky.social

but also because it's often hard to show the stakes. In this case, it seems like there is such an egregious privacy invasion (the area covered, the high resolution of the cameras, close monitoring of residents' properties) that people actually are bothered by it.

Sean O’Kane reposted

Alison Killing
@alisonkilling.bsky.social

This is a really well done piece on surveillance at the US's southern border, great graphics, interviews, reconstructions of what the cameras can see. Surveillance is a subject which I think is really challenging to do, both because it can be difficult to get data... www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.comTrump’s ‘Smart Wall’ of A.I. Cameras Is Watching the Border, and More Than a Million PeopleThe administration is planning a massive expansion of the surveillance program. Here’s how much it can see.

Sean O’Kane reposted

mtsw
@mtsw.bsky.social

Everyone thought Lula was cooked, hopeless. Then he bought a phone and started posting and now he's gonna get a 4th term. The lesson is to never stop posting.

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

real shame, it’s done fantastic work

Ben Mullin@benmullin.bsky.social

News: Rest of World, the nonprofit newsroom focused on the impact of technology outside the West founded by Sophie Schmidt, tells donors in an email it will “cease publishing as a standalone entity” at the end of January.

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

if you ever chose whether to start or bench Jerome Bettis in your fantasy football league, remember to take your vitamins

Sean O’Kane reposted

Matthew Guariglia
@mguariglia.bsky.social

Picked up this 1985 paperback at a used bookstore. It’s about a future (2025) where liberals have disarmed police, civil liberties have triumphed, and as a result criminals have taken over NYC and a group of murderous cops and their android go in to clean up the city.

Sean O’Kane reposted

ProPublica
@propublica.org

NEW: “In Texas, we fight fraud head-on,” Ken Paxton said last year. Yet records show his trust gave $600K to a convicted fraudster’s new company in 2020, which later wired the trust tens of thousands of dollars before and during his 2023 impeachment. with @texastribune.org

propublica.orgKen Paxton’s Trust Gave a $600,000 Infusion to a Convicted Fraudster’s CompanyThe blind trust’s investment in Wildcatter offers a new, unreported look at the attorney general’s financial ties with the very type of business executives whose prosecutions he typically celebrates.

Sean O’Kane reposted

Dana Goldstein
@danagoldstein.bsky.social

My deep dive on the "A.I.-driven" Alpha School, revealing their internal learning and enrollment data for the first time, just as the network expands into public education. There is a big gap between the marketing and reality. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

nytimes.comAlpha School Claims to Teach Kids Twice as Fast. Many Don’t Make It. (Gift Article)Alpha School, a private network, is spreading into public education. While its students’ test scores are high, some parents and educators say it doesn’t live up to the hype.

Sean O’Kane reposted

Gillian Branstetter
@gbbranstetter.bsky.social

Woah - boards of service in the Marines and the Navy are ignoring Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth's order to purge transgender troops from the military. "Navy and Marine Corps boards have voted to retain trans members in nine of 12 cases." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

nytimes.comMilitary Boards Are Defying Orders and Letting Trans Troops Serve (Gift Article)The service members at Navy and Marine Corps hearings are finding ways to keep trans troops in uniform.
Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

this is a small acquisition by the looks of it but i do wonder if we're about to see a run of roll-ups in the AV space over the next year

This post is unavailable.
Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

if the "it's 2016 all over again" vibe holds true as it has pretty much all year in AVs, seems like it's definintely on the horizon

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

90!

Oceans of NYC@oceansofnyc.com

📈 90.0% █████████▒ (of 2756) @cmarkv.bsky.social (208) 11,378 | T724066C @zlwichter.bsky.social (136) 11,379 | T147775C @samthegeek.net (1,108) 11,380 | T147646C @airlineflyer.net (1,120) 11,381 | T720034C

Sean O’Kane reposted

Patrick George
@patrickgeorge.bsky.social

Great read from @mims.bsky.social about taking a cheap EV through states that aren't exactly bursting at the seams with public chargers—and why it's easier to do now than many folks think: www.wsj.com/business/aut...

wsj.comI Took America’s Cheapest EV Into the Charging Desert of the Deep SouthReaders challenged our columnist to take an affordable electric car on a route with less-than-ideal charging options. Here’s what happened.
Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

Already ~50% more than he spent supporting Trump in 2024

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

NEW, from Bloomberg News: “Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle.”

bloomberg.comMusk Giving Tops $445 Million in Midterm Election Push for GOPWith a fresh infusion of cash to his super political action committee in the first two weeks of October, Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle and become one of ...

Sean O’Kane reposted

Noah Shachtman
@noahshachtman.bsky.social

The Russians hacked Jared's phone. Then Dutch cyberspies then reverse-engineered that hack, giving them unprecedented access to his world. Bananas story in @vanityfair.com

Vanity Fair@vanityfair.com

Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations—Including More Than $700 Million In Transfers

vanityfair.comThe Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed More Than $700 Million in TransfersAn exclusive excerpt from ‘Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East’ examines how bank accounts linked the president’s son-in-law—and former sen...

Sean O’Kane reposted

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

Last quarter Tesla published a chart that showed “Cumulative Paid Robotaxi Miles,” which actually showed a quarter-on-quarter decline. Yesterday the company completely changed the chart. It only shows raw miles now: techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/t...

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

Tesla got real cute on its earnings call about how it's going to miss its capex guidance, with Musk kind of struggling to say that it will come in lower than expected. In the 10-Q they're far more explicit: it's gone from “in excess of $25 billion” to “in excess of $20 billion” for all of 2026

Sean O’Kane
@okane.fyi

Musk said all the right things on the SpaceX call about how he's not convinced a merger will happen, etc, but you combine this ^ with how many promises they said are essentially getting punted to Q2 next year and, well..

Sean O’Kane reposted

Jeremy Markovich
@ncrabbithole.com

A million North Carolinians have voted in this year’s election. One of them—just one!—cast a ballot from Antarctica. I found him. And I found out how he did it. www.ncrabbithole.com/p/one-person...

ncrabbithole.comOne person in Antarctica voted in North Carolina's election. We found him.How did a former truck driver from the Asheville area end up on the bottom of the world? And how hard is it to cast a ballot from a remote, frozen outpost that's 9,000 miles away?