Waymo Exec Reveals Company Uses Remote Operators in the Philippines to Assist Autonomous Vehicles

An executive at Waymo admitted to lawmakers that the company uses remote employees in the Philippines to navigate difficult driving scenarios. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing regarding autonomous vehicles (AV). The hearing included witness testimony from an executive at Tesla, the CEO of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, and an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina.

Also present was Dr. Mauricio Peña, the chief safety officer at Waymo, the U.S.-based autonomous driving technology company.

During the testimony, Senator Ed Markey — a Democrat from Massachusetts — probed the executive about what happens when an AV “encounters a situation on the road that it doesn’t know how to handle.”

“The Waymo phones a human friend for help,” Markey, 79, says. “The autonomous vehicle communicates with a so-called remote assistance operator… Despite the crucial role these operators play in autonomous vehicle safety, the public knows almost nothing about those people.”

Markey then asked about where the operators are located, to which Peña says they have "some in the U.S. and some abroad,” however he did not know an exact percentage of those located elsewhere. 

After further questioning, the executive revealed that their international remote operators are located in the Philippines. 

“Having people overseas influencing American vehicles is a safety issue,” Markey says. “The information the operators receive could be out of date. It could introduce tremendous cyber security vulnerabilities… And let’s not forget Waymo is trying to replace the jobs of hardworking taxi and ride share drivers.”

A Waymo spokesperson tells PEOPLE over the phone that the reason for outsourcing to the Philippines is part of an effort to scale the company globally. He added that these operators, called "fleet response agents," are required to have a passenger car or van license in addition to undergoing regular driving history checks.

The spokesperson emphasized that these agents never drive the vehicle remotely, instead they only provide additional context to the autonomous diving technology, which typically "is able to resolve these situations on its own."

Waymo did not provide statistics regarding how many remote operators are located within the U.S. and abroad.

According to Waymo’s website, the Alphabet-owned company currently operates in six U.S. markets including Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Tx. The company is looking to expand to other areas like Boston, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and even overseas in London. 

The hearing comes less than two weeks after a Waymo vehicle hit a child walking to school during drop-off. According to a statement from the company, the incident occurred on Jan. 23, in Santa Monica, Calif. 

“The event occurred when the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle's path," the Jan. 28 statement said. "Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle."

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Local outlet ABC 7 reports the child, whose age was not disclosed, suffered minor injuries.