Rya Jetha

Claremont, San Francisco

Dow Jones News Fund Reporter at CalMatters

Tech culture reporter @sfstandard via @business & @calmatters Tips + ☕️: [email protected] / signal: rjetha.07 🇺🇸🇮🇳🇬🇧 /🏃🏻‍♀️‍➡️📚🏎️

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Articles

Our rollercoaster Zoox ride through SF made us slightly sick

1 week ago | sfstandard.com | Jillian D'Onfro |Rya Jetha

The Amazon-owned company has been testing its driverless (and steering-wheel-less) vehicles in SoMa, the Mission, and the Design District since November, but they’re not publicly accessible — so it was thrilling when two reporters received an invite to take a spin in the toaster on wheels. To catch our ride, we arrived at Zoox’s SoMa outpost, a sprawling warehouse filled with Toyota SUV test vehicles and dozens of carriage-style robotaxis painted “aloe” green.
Here is where Waymo has suspended service in San Francisco

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Kevin Truong |Rya Jetha

A map created by a tech worker has revealed the extent of San Francisco’s no-Waymo zone, instituted by the robotaxi company amid large-scale protests and the torching of five of its vehicles in Los Angeles. San Francisco engineer and Waymo user Riley Walz undertook a largely manual process to draw the map, using drop-off points to find the borders of the areas listed as inaccessible on the company’s app.
San Francisco VC firm fined $215M for using Russian oligarch funds

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

What happens when you set up a venture firm in San Francisco, manage investments for a sanctioned Russian oligarch, and leave the U.S. government on read? The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday imposed the penalty on GVA Capital for violating Russia-related sanctions and failing to comply with a subpoena.
HBO’s ‘Mountainhead’ is a scathing parody of tech culture

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Emily Dreyfuss |Rya Jetha |Kevin Truong

If you’ve ever been to a networking event in SoMa and found yourself cornered by a coder who hasn’t outgrown their Ayn Rand phase, you’ll immediately recognize the characters in HBO’s new techdoomsday satire “Mountainhead.”In the Bay Area, a grown-up case of infectious Randianism seems to spread seasonally — and no one is too bothered.
Silicon Valley's homebuying spree has slowed to a crawl

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

Personal politics aside, Silicon Valley luxury real estate agents had eagerly anticipated a “Trump bump.” During Donald Trump’s first term, a surging stock market and historically low interest rates fueled a homebuying boom — conditions they hoped would reemerge with his return to the presidency. And, for a while, that’s how it seemed to be playing out. “Those first two weeks were phenomenal after Inauguration Day,” said Joe Velasco, a real estate agent who operates in the Peninsula and South Bay.
They wanted to fix SF government. Then Elon Musk came calling

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

Zsombor “Anthony” Jancso and Jordan Wick had lucrative jobs at blue-chip tech companies — the kind of roles that are increasingly tough for new college grads to come by. But for them, it wasn’t enough. Frustrated with the direction of San Francisco’s drift, they had a vision of young tech workers working hand-in-hand with local government to solve core challenges like homelessness, degrading public safety, and trash on city streets.
A new hip-hop musical slams tech, while Reid Hoffman signs the check

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

As I walked into the Strand Theater with a group of theater-curious tech founders, there was one question on our minds: Who, in the year of our Lord 2025, is asking for another hip-hop musical? For one: LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman. The billionaire has invested in everything from OpenAI to a proposed utopia in rural California.
Entry-level tech hiring is down 50%. So much for that diploma

1 month ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha |Ezra Wallach

Johnn Cabacungan, a 21-year-old from Los Angeles, flashed a toothy smile as he looked for his crew Saturday in the crush of people outside UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium after commencement. A media studies major, Cabacungan has a string of internships at Adobe and other companies on his résumé and served as president of UC Berkeley’s consulting club. He’s the kind of gunner who in recent years would have had a cushy job waiting for him.
Meet the investor running his life with AI

1 month ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

Daniel Ha loves to argue. He loves it so much that his last company was an internet commenting platform that allowed people to banter about news. But he knows his contrarian bent can be tiresome for the people around him. So when AI came along, and others started thinking about how to build friends, romantic partners, or tutors, Ha, 39, saw an opportunity to make what he’d always wanted: a debate opponent who loves arguing as much as he does.
Sam Altman's creepy eye-scanner project launches in SF

1 month ago | sfstandard.com | Rya Jetha

The orb-like devices, intended to prove a person is a human being, initially glitched out during the grand opening in Union Square. A slightly dystopian project backed by Sam Altman to scan people’s eyes to verify they aren’t robots opened its flagship location in San Francisco today. The only problem was that the devices initially failed to work. As curious San Franciscans filed into the space next to Macy’s in Union Square, the eight orbs enclosed in a panopticon-like wooden circle glitched out.