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You may remember the congressional hearing last month that sparked criticism against Waymo for the use of remote assistance workers in the Philippines. We have covered this 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, these 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 an autonomous vehicle technology issue.
New report from Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) makes my point.
Markey sent letters to seven American companies — Dawn, May mobility, Kinetic, Nuro, Tesla, Waymoand Zoox — work on autonomous vehicle technology with a list of questions. He wanted to know how often these companies’ vehicles relied on information from remote personnel.
These they all refused to sayaccording to Markey’s survey results. Markey said it was a “stunning lack of transparency from AV companies about using remote-assist remote controls to help guide their AVs.”
You can read Senior Reporter Sean O’Kane’s article, which digs into the issue and includes the rather muted responses from the companies. (TechCrunch reached out to all of them.) An interesting admission from Tesla: The company said that remote assistance workers are empowered to temporarily take 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 defuse the matter. If anything, Markey seems more motivated than ever to get answers. Now he calls it National Road Safety Agency to investigate companies’ use of remote assistance workers and said it is “working on legislation to impose strict guardrails on the use of remote operators by AV companies.”
A little bird
Nothing this week we could verify. Send us tips! Do you have one? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07 or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
It seems like just last week I was writing Uber to be everywhere, at once. And I see it still being a trend, although this time it’s not directly related to autonomous vehicles.
Uber said it is buying a Berlin-based startup Blacklanewhich provides on-demand black car chauffeur services as the giant expands into luxury and executive travel services. Founded in 2011, Blacklane has raised more than $100 million to date from car rental company Sixt, Mercedes-Benz and Alfahim, a UAE conglomerate.
The timing of the acquisition is remarkable. It comes just weeks after Uber announced the launch of Uber Elite, a chauffeur service that also offers a range of luxury offerings, including airport meet and greets and in-vehicle amenities.
Other offers that caught my eye…
Manna Air Deliveryan Ireland-based consumer drone distribution startup; raised $50 million from ARK Invest, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Schooner Capital, Coca-Cola HBC and Molten Ventures.
Saronic Technologiesan independent military shipbuilding company based in Austin, raised $1.75 billion in a Series D funding 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 it acknowledges 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, led by Israeli venture capital firm Aleph and Australian miner Fortescue.
Notable reads and other items
Alsothe micromobility company he created in-house Rivian released last year, will work with DoorDash for the development of autonomous delivery vehicles. As part of the deal, DoorDash participated in Also’s $200 million Series C funding round, led by Greenoaks Capital. DoorDash is also taking a seat on Also’s board of directors.
Baidu Robotaxis have ground to a halt across Wuhan, China, in some cases trapping passengers for up to two hours due to system failure.
GM is intensifying its efforts to improve its advanced driver assistance system, Super Cruise. CEO Mary Barra posted on LinkedIn that GM has begun supervised testing of its next-generation automated driving system on public highways in California and Michigan.
“Soon, more than 200 supervised and manual test vehicles will be in live traffic, with trained drivers ready to take over at any time. This data will guide future updates to enhance our autonomous capabilities,” he wrote.
Clear issued a recall for more than 4,000 Gravity SUVs after discovering a problem with seat belts.
THE National Road Safety Agency stated that deaths from traffic accidents down 6.7% to 36,640 in 2025 compared to the previous year. That’s the second-lowest traffic fatality rate in recorded history at 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven, according to NHTSA.
All these long TSA The lines are pushing airlines to catch up and adapt. For example, United Airlines has updated its mobile app to display TSA wait times at select airports.
THE Subaru-Toyota The partnership continues to launch electric vehicles. At the New York Auto Show, Subaru unveiled the all-electric Gateway, a three-row SUV that’s essentially a refreshed Toyota Highlander EV.
TeslaFirst-quarter sales figures show its cheaper vehicles aren’t helping it reverse declining sales. (Some traditional automakers have seen EV sales plummet.) This appears to have affected Tesla’s workforce numbers at its Austin, Texas, plant, which is down 22% in 2025. Meanwhile, I disagree with the changing of the guard at Tesla (and, no, I’m not referring to that executive). CEO Elon Musk shared that production of the Tesla Model S and X has ended, a milestone that marks the shift away from making cars designed to be driven by humans and toward robots and self-driving cars.
Toyota’s Woven Capital has appointed a new CIO and COO in a push to find the “future of mobility”.
Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide has launched robotaxi operations without a human safety operator in Dubai as part of a wider expansion in the Middle East.
Waymo‘s robotaxi service is now live at San Antonio International, its fourth major airport. Meanwhile, Wired looked into Waymo’s school bus problem (meaning the investigation into the illegal behavior of its robotic drive around school buses). The article provides new details on how the Austin School District tried to help Waymo solve the problem. It didn’t work.
One more thing…
My podcast, the Autonocastspent some time talking to me Ashu RegeVP of Autonomy at DoorDash. We recorded the episode before the Also-DoorDash announcement, which makes his comments on the company’s strategy all the more interesting. Watch the episode here.
