TechCrunch Mobility: Waymo makes its defense

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Earlier this month, Waymo chief safety officer Mauricio Peña testified before the Senate Commerce Committee as part of a hearing to talk about autonomous vehicles. Much of the questioning fell under the standard “let’s educate the public” category. Ed Markey’s questions about overseas workers, and Peña’s response, that everyone paid attention to. Peña, when asked about human workers who assist with Waymo vehicles’ navigation or emergencies, revealed that the company has remote guidance workers based overseas in the Philippines. This sparked some quick ire from Markey, who admonished Peña on how the company could rely on people without U. driver’s licenses to assist its vehicles on U. roads, among other criticisms. Waymo formulated a response in a blog post written by Waymo’s head of global operations Ryan McNamara, which was published Tuesday. It has also shared the letter it sent to Markey’s office. The post and letter do provide fresh insight about its remote-assistance operations. For instance, Waymo stresses it does not employ people who “remotely drive” the robotaxis. Instead, the self-driving systems are the ones in charge.

Remote assistance (RA) workers are there to respond to specific requests for information that the Waymo self-driving system asks for.

The company also has Event Response Teams, or ERTs, people who are certified for more complex tasks and are exclusively based in the United States.

This team responds to collisions, interfacing with law enforcement and the rider, collecting data for regulatory reporting, and coordinating towing, Waymo says.

We also now know that Waymo has about “70 Remote Assistance agents on duty worldwide at any given time. ” These folks are based in Arizona, Michigan, and in two cities in the Philippines, a detail that, again, has raised the ire of some lawmakers.

To give you a sense of what that means, consider that Waymo has a fleet of 3,000 vehicles and every week its vehicles drive over 4 million miles and provide over 400,000 rides.

So, very few workers are monitoring lots of robotaxis. I have argued for years that AV companies need to do a better job of explaining what happens behind the scenes, particularly when it comes to remote guidance. Most companies, many of which no longer exist, avoided the topic like a plague, perhaps in an effort to make its tech seem more magical and innovative. Turns out, mystery breeds mistrust. While the debate over remote guidance operators plays out, Waymo continues to press into new markets.

New York governor Kathy Hochul withdrew a proposal that would have amended vehicle and traffic laws to effectively legalize robotaxis in the state outside of New York City.

Hochul spokesperson Sean Butler told me: “Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal.

” One more thing before we jump into the rest of the news. Mobility readers sure don’t believe the Rivian R2 will be priced at $50,000 or below. Last week, I polled you all and asked: “What will the starting price of the Rivian R2 launch edition be?” I gave three options, under $50,000, above $60,000, and above $70,000.

More than 54% picked “above $60,000,” with the remaining two options split on the matter.

To participate in our polls,