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You may remember the congressional hearing last month that sparked criticism against Waymo on the use of remote support workers in the Philippines. We have covered that topic extensively. You can read about the company’s remote assistance and roadside assistance teams. here and here.
Waymo tends to get the most attention because, well, those robotaxis are now operating commercially in 10 US cities, with more coming soon. But the issue of remote assistance is not a Waymo issue. It’s a question of autonomous vehicle technology.
A new report from Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) makes my point.
Markey sent letters to seven American companies: Aurora, May Mobility, Engine, Only, tesla, Waymoand zoox — working on autonomous vehicle technology with a list of questions. I wanted to know how often these companies’ vehicles depended on input from remote staff.
They everyone refused to sayaccording to the results of Markey’s research. Markey said it was a “surprising lack of transparency on the part of AV companies around using remote assistance operators to help guide their AVs.”
you can read Article by senior reporter Sean O’Kanewhich delves into the topic and includes the rather silent responses from the companies. (TechCrunch reached out to all of them.) An interesting admission from Tesla: The company said its remote assistance workers are authorized to temporarily assume direct control of the vehicle (something very different from “remote assistance”) as a final escalation maneuver.
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But here’s the thing: this isn’t going away. And silence will not calm the matter. If anything, Markey seems more motivated than ever to get answers. Now it’s calling National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate companies’ use of remote support workers and said it is “working on legislation to impose strict barriers on audiovisual companies’ use of remote operators.”
a little bird
Nothing this week that we have been able to verify. Send us tips! Do you have one? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my sign at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
It seems like last week I was writing about Uber be everywhere, everything at once. And I see that it is still a trend, although this time it is not directly related to autonomous vehicles.
uber said is buying Berlin-based startup black lanewhich offers on-demand black car chauffeur services, as the ride-hailing giant expands further into executive and luxury travel services. Blacklane, founded in 2011, had raised more than $100 million to date from car rental company Sixt, Mercedes-Benz and Alfahim, a conglomerate in the United Arab Emirates.
The timing of the acquisition is notable. It comes just weeks after Uber announced the launch of Uber Elite, a chauffeur-driven service that also offers a host of luxury offerings such as airport meet-ups and in-vehicle amenities.
Other offers that caught my attention…
Aerial Mana Deliverya consumer drone delivery startup based in Ireland, raised 50 million dollars from ARK Invest, the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, Schooner Capital, Coca-Cola HBC and Molten Ventures.
Saronic technologiesan Austin-based developer of autonomous military vessels, raised 1.75 billion dollars in a Series D financing round led by Kleiner Perkins. The company is now valued at $9.25 billion. Other investors include Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth, BAM Elevate and other new partners and recognizes the continued commitment of its existing investors, including 8VC, Caffeinated Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Elad Gil and Franklin Templeton.
Voltifya startup that has developed a way to retrofit diesel locomotives with battery power, raised $30 million in seed funding co-led by Israeli venture firm Aleph and Australian miner Fortescue.
Notable readings and other tidbits
Alsothe micromobility company created within rivian which emerged last year, will work with DoorDash develop autonomous delivery vehicles. As part of the deal, DoorDash participated in Also’s $200 million Series C funding round, led by Greenoaks Capital. DoorDash will also get a seat on Also’s board of directors.
Baidu stopped robotaxis throughout Wuhan, China, in some cases trapping passengers for up to two hours due to a system failure.
G.M. is stepping up efforts to improve its advanced driver assistance system, Super Cruise. executive director Maria Barra posted on LinkedIn That GM has begun supervised testing of its next-generation automated driving system on public roads in California and Michigan.
“Soon, more than 200 manual, supervised test vehicles will be in real traffic, with trained drivers ready to take control at a moment’s notice. This data will guide future upgrades to strengthen our autonomous capabilities,” he wrote.
Lucid issued a withdrawal for more than 4,000 Gravity SUVs after discovering a problem with the seat belts.
He National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that traffic deaths fell 6.7% to 36,640 in 2025 from the previous year. This is the second-lowest traffic fatality rate in recorded history: 1.10 deaths per 100 million miles driven, according to the NHTSA.
All those long TSA The lines are prompting airlines to catch up and adapt. For example, United Airlines has updated its mobile app to show TSA wait times at select airports.
He Subaru-Toyota The association continues to produce electric vehicles. At the New York Auto Show, Subaru unveiled the all-electric Gateway, a three-row SUV that’s essentially a Rebadged Toyota Highlander EV.
teslaFirst-quarter sales figures show that its cheaper vehicles are not helping it recover. declining sales. (Some traditional automakers have seen sales of electric vehicles decline.) That appears to have affected Tesla’s workforce numbers at its Austin, Texas, factory, which fell 22% in 2025. Meanwhile, I talk about Changing of the guard at Tesla (and, no, I’m not talking about the string of executive departures there, although that’s interesting). executive director Elon Musk shared that production of the Tesla Model S and X has ended, a milestone that marks the shift from building cars designed to be driven by people to robots and autonomous cars.
Toyota’s Woven Capital has designated a new CIO and COO in an effort to find the “future of mobility.”
Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle company we travel launched robotaxi operations without a human security operator in Dubai as part of a broader expansion in the Middle East.
WaymoThe robotaxi service is now available in San Antonio Internationalits fourth most important airport. Meanwhile, Wired looked into Waymo’s school bus issue (i.e., the investigation into its robotaxis’ illegal behavior around school buses). The article provides new details about how the Austin School District attempted to help Waymo resolve the issue. it didn’t work.
One more thing…
My podcast, the automatic transmissionspent some time talking to ashu regeVice President of Autonomy at DoorDash. We recorded the episode before the Also-DoorDash announcement, which makes his comments on the company’s strategy even more interesting. Watch the episode here.
