TechCrunch Mobility: ‘A stunning lack of transparency’

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 ! You might recall the congressional hearing last month that sparked criticism against Waymo over its use of

Automotive·April 5, 2026·3 min read

The Lead

TechCrunch Mobility: ‘A stunning lack of transparency’. 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 ! You might recall the congressional hearing last month that sparked criticism against Waymo over its use of remote assistance workers in the Philippines. We have covered that issue extensively. You can read about the company’s remote assistance and road assistance teams here and here .

Key Details

Waymo tends to get the most attention because, well, those robotaxis are now operating commercially in 10 U.S. cities, with more coming soon. But the issue of remote assistance is not a Waymo issue. It’s an autonomous vehicle technology issue. A new report from Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) makes my point. Markey sent letters to seven U.S.

Context

companies — Aurora , May Mobility , Motional , Nuro , Tesla , Waymo , and Zoox — working on autonomous vehicle technology with a list of questions. He wanted to know how often these companies’ vehicles relied on input from remote staff. They all refused to say , according to the results of Markey’s investigation. Markey said it was a “stunning lack of transparency from the AV companies around their use of remote assistance operators to help guide their.

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