some of the remote operators who assist its self-driving vehicles in navigating difficult scenarios
Posted on 02/05/2026 8:25:20 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
Waymo‘s Chief Safety Officer disclosed Wednesday that some of the remote operators who assist its self-driving vehicles in navigating difficult scenarios are based in the Philippines.
Mauricio Peña, the company’s Chief Safety Officer, confirmed under questioning that the Alphabet subsidiary employs human operators abroad to provide guidance to its robotaxis when they encounter challenging driving situations. Ad ends in 5
Peña noted that the vehicles remain in control of all driving tasks at all times.
“They provide guidance. They do not remotely drive the vehicles,” Peña told the Senate committee. “The Waymo vehicle is always in charge of the dynamic driving tasks, so that is just one additional input.”
When pressed on how many operators are located outside the United States, Peña said he did not have the breakdown available, escalating frustration from senators.
“It just seems kind of curious that you don’t know that answer,” one senator responded, before asking in which countries the operators are located.
“The Philippines,” Peña replied.
The disclosure drew immediate pushback from lawmakers, who raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities, outdated information relays, and the qualifications of overseas operators.
“Having people overseas influencing American vehicles is a safety issue,” the senator said. “The information the operators receive could be out of date. It could introduce tremendous cybersecurity vulnerabilities. We don’t know if these people have US driver’s licenses.”
The senator also criticized the labor implications, noting that Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are already displacing taxi and rideshare drivers in the United States.
“It’s one thing when a taxi is replaced by an Uber or a Lyft. It’s another thing when the jobs just go completely overseas,” the senator added.
(Excerpt) Read more at eletric-vehicles.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
You can hear him at 1:20 of the two and a half minute video at the URL:
https://x.com/niccruzpatane/status/2019213765506670738
Pinging those from the recent Waymo incident where a Waymo vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school.
So an unlicensed driver is driving a vehicle in the U.S. remotely?
And that happens how often - thousands of times each day?
It’s no different then an illegal alien being stopped and ticketed/arrested for having no license.
Why aren’t the Waymo execs all being booked right now?
Waymo at least works most of the time. Tesla is much more dependent on secret drivers, because it only has cameras, not radar.
some of the remote operators who assist its self-driving vehicles in navigating difficult scenarios
Ummm... I hope it’s just the men who are taking over and not the women.
No offense to women drivers meant at all here, but when it comes to the stereotype concerning Asian female drivers I have first hand knowledge that it is dead nuts accurate more times than naught.
Amazon Abandons Checkout-Less Tech That Secretly Used 1,000 Indian Employees Watching Cameras
https://thedeepdive.ca/amazon-abandons-checkout-less-tech-that-secretly-used-1000-indian-employees-watching-cameras/
Who even knows if they’re adults? I’d suspect they’re kids who are playing video games in between requests to take over driving actual cars.
Because they made sure some ignorant or corrupt politician signed off on the proposal that included the remote driving.
The heads of the departments of transportation and police departments need to be charged. Start pulling the city engineers' licenses, the licenses of the consultant engineers who submitted the proposal, and licenses of the consultant engineers who reviewed them.
They knew.
Two weeks ago, I saw a Waymo taxi make an illegal u-turn in the middle of a very busy city street. Now I know why.
I'd put money on it that there are financial incentives built into the employees' pay to get the riders to the destination within a certain amount of time compared to the forecasted trip duration.
They're risking people's lives for pocket change so executives can make fortunes on their stock options.
US Waymo robotaxis are being driven remotely by Philippines taxi drivers. This explains a lot.
I think the point is and this proves Waymo doesn’t work.
Waymo accidents vs regular accidents
Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have been involved in a total of 45 crashes reported to the government between mid-February and mid-August of this year. However, a significant majority of these crashes were not Waymo’s fault, including 24 crashes where the Waymo wasn’t moving at all and another seven where the Waymo was rear-ended by another vehicle. These incidents highlight that while Waymo’s robotaxis are astonishingly safe, accidents can still occur, even with the company’s rigorous safety measures.
Deal with it.
You probably are right about the financial incentives. When I saw the Waymo make the illegal turn, it really surprised me. I thought Rule #1 with these driverless cars was to obey the law. The u-turn didn’t cause an accident, but it still was illegal. Someone was probably on camera guiding it and was under pressure to get the rider to a destination quickly and the illegal u-turn was the way to do it.
Waymo is Google. We are way past the time that Google and Amazon are made to sell off parts of their businesses to other independent companies.
I much prefer riding in a Waymo compared to Uber/Lyft. I use Waymo all the time when in San Francisco and the cars are clean and smooth. That being said, this greatly increases the chances of a terrorist attack if some unknown person in the Phillipines takes over a Waymo and drives it off a cliff or into a building or into a crowd purposely.
I much prefer riding in a Waymo compared to Uber/Lyft. I use Waymo all the time when in San Francisco and the cars are clean and smooth. That being said, this greatly increases the chances of a terrorist attack if some unknown person in the Phillipines takes over a Waymo and drives it off a cliff or into a building or into a crowd purposely.
Tell that to the child hit by the Waymo driver.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4364586/posts
And tell it to the next ones. Remind them they're just a statistic - if they survive.
Of all the jobs you figured could not be off-shored ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.