Waymo (Google's self-driving car project) currently only operates in the US, but plans to expand to Japan & Britain in 2026. Do these "remote drivers" in the Philippines have US, Japanese, or British driving licences? Waymo isn't saying. How do they get away with being in charge of a vehicle? Try telling a police officer who has pulled you over in America, Japan, or Britain that you are driving without a licence & see how far it gets you.
Robo-taxis may be at Level 4 self-driving (that occasionally requires human remote drivers) until the 2030s. Is this about to turn into another global battle between regulators versus Big Tech, who'll insist they should be able to do what they want?
Waymo has disclosed it has "remote drivers" for its robo-taxis in the Philippines, but won't disclose their training or driving qualifications. This attitude will be a problem for the global robo-taxi industry as it expands to more countries.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
5 Comments
This is an absolutely horrible concept.
This is just another situation of the ultra wealthy taking away from the rest of us.
This shows Waymo’s system is even less practical than we thought. Expensive complicated car with too many sensors, need to constantly update lidar maps, and now we find out they have remote drivers.
They’re not “remote drivers”, that would obviously be impossible for many reasons including latency.
“They do not remotely drive the vehicles. Waymo asks for guidance in certain situations and gets an input, but the Waymo vehicle is always in charge of the dynamic driving tasks, so that is just one additional input.”
https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/waymos-controlled-workers-philippines
There was a huge power outage in San Francisco so all the lights were out. All the Waymos basically stopped in place and created huge traffic. Where were these “remote drivers” then?
The world has known about Waymo remote workers for what, 5 years now?