Bitcoin News Australia

Is your desk littered with discarded fidget spinners, coloring books, and maybe even some slime?

If so, you’re probably an American consumer — and you’re not alone.

With anxiety disorders affecting 40m US adults (19% of the population), and young people even more likely to experience mental health symptoms, alleviating stress means big business for brands.

And companies aren’t shying away from the challenge:

• Wearables like Apollo Neuro ($349), Muse (~$294), and Sensate ($299) promise to track and reduce stress.
• Coloring books, weighted blankets, and fidget toys of all kinds are sold as much-needed distractions.
• Supplements made with ingredients like ashwagandha, melatonin, and CBD are peddled on social media as sleep aids and anxiety cures.

While there’s no shortage of products guaranteeing to keep us calm, the anxiety industry has little regulatory oversight and the FDA doesn’t approve supplements.

Then why do these things sell?

Because consumers will try just about anything to relieve their mounting stress. And, importantly, because it’s not easy to get help.

A shortage of mental health workers and inferior insurance coverage means waitlists and costs are piling up, making mental health services out of reach for many.

Though telehealth businesses are trying to fill the void:

• The app Headspace has a range of content for managing anxiety, and its corporate offering, Ginger, brings the service to employees at enrolled companies.
• Platforms like BetterHelp, Talkspace, and Lyra connect users with mental health services online.

Plus, if talk therapy doesn’t work: There’s lots of VC funding and research flowing into the startups looking to treat mental health disorders with psychedelics.

San Francisco is on the cutting edge of driverless vehicle tech. One group isn’t pleased about it, per NPR — the city’s first responders.

• Two weeks ago: Regulators greenlit GM’s Cruise and Google’s Waymo robotaxi expansion in SF, allowing them to serve live, paying customers 24/7.
  • Opposed but overruled: the city’s police and fire departments, which cited dozens of incidents where self-driving cars interrupted rescue operations.

• One week ago: Right on cue, a Cruise vehicle collided with a fire truck en route to an emergency. (Regulators halved Cruise’s active fleet, pending an investigation.)

What’s going wrong?

Per The Los Angeles Times, robotaxis have:

• Run through emergency tape, straight into downed electrical wires.
• Forced a firetruck to back up and reroute to a blaze.
• Entered an active fire scene, then parked on top of a fire hose.
• Blocked firehouse driveways. Twice.

Neither company has offered a reason why their vehicles have responded this way, per NPR.

Waymo claims its cars are designed to identify, and yield to, emergency vehicles, among other built-in precautions — like a 24-hour hotline to connect first responders and Waymo staff.

But every second counts in an emergency, and SF Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson says firefighters “cannot be paying attention to an autonomous vehicle when [they’ve] got ladders to throw.”

Things may get more unwieldy soon

Cruise and Waymo has asked the California Public Utilities Commission, which dismissed San Francisco’s first responders’ concerns, to weigh in on expanded testing in more cities, including Los Angeles.

• SFFD fields ~160k calls per year; LAFD responded to 505k+ calls last year.

Trust the LA residents behind this newsletter: The city’s drivers need no help making the roads absolutely impossible for emergency vehicles.