Waymo defended its use of remote assistants for its robotaxis after the testimony of one of its top executives during a Senate hearing went viral. In a letter to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) on Tuesday, Waymo’s head of global operations Ryan McNamara provided a detailed description of the company’s remote assistance operations, including the number of employees based overseas.
Waymo employs approximately 70 “remote assistance agents,” with half based in the US and the other half in the Philippines, McNamara said. These agents “provide advice only when requested by the [automated driving system] on an event-driven basis,” the letter states. “Waymo’ …