Waymo Reveals Remote Workers In Philippines Sometimes Advise Its Driverless Cars (newsweek.com)
- Reference: 0180754656
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/07/2140203/waymo-reveals-remote-workers-in-philippines-sometimes-advise-its-driverless-cars
- Source link: https://www.newsweek.com/waymo-reveals-remote-workers-in-philippines-help-guide-its-driverless-cars-11478439
> During questioning, Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked what happens when a Waymo vehicle encounters a driving situation it cannot independently resolve. "The Waymo phones a human friend for help," Markey explained, adding that the vehicle communicates with a "remote assistance operator." Markey criticized the lack of public information about these workers, despite their role in vehicle safety...
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> [Dr. Mauricio Peña, chief safety officer at Waymo] responded by clarifying the scope of the operators' involvement: "They provide guidance, they do not remotely drive the vehicles," Peña said. "Waymo asks for guidance in certain situations and gets input, but Waymo is always in charge of the dynamic driving task," [2]according to EVShift . Pressed further on where those operators are located, Peña told lawmakers that some are based in the United States and others abroad, though he did not have an exact breakdown. After additional questioning, he confirmed that overseas operators are located in the Philippines...
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> The disclosure prompted sharp criticism from Markey, who raised concerns about security and labor implications. "Having people overseas influencing American vehicles is a safety issue," he said. "The information the operators receive could be out of date. It could introduce tremendous cyber security vulnerabilities," according to [3] People . Markey also pointed to job displacement, noting that autonomous vehicles already affect taxi and rideshare drivers in the U.S. Waymo defended the practice in comments to People, saying the use of overseas staff is part of a broader effort to scale operations globally.
Waymo also defended the remote workers to Newsweek as licensed drivers reviewed for "driving-related convictions" and other traffic violations who are also "randomly screened for drug use."
Thanks to Slashdot reader [4]sinij for sharing the news.
[1] https://www.newsweek.com/waymo-reveals-remote-workers-in-philippines-help-guide-its-driverless-cars-11478439
[2] https://www.evshift.com/397501/waymo-exec-admits-remote-operators-in-philippines-help-guide-us-robotaxis/
[3] https://people.com/waymo-exec-reveals-company-uses-operators-in-the-philippines-to-assist-autonomous-vehicles-11900507
[4] https://www.slashdot.org/~sinij
More of the AI patina is rubbing off (Score:2)
Amazon Go stores [1]employed hundreds of low-paid Indian workers in offshore sweatshops [businessinsider.com] while pretending their AI was magically determining everything people put into their baskets and carts.
And now, we see Waymo is doing basically the same thing. While the congress-critters were focusing on the off-shoring aspect, I wish they'd asked exactly how many times per trip the Waymo AI "asked" the humans for assistance - that could've been enlightening.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4?op=1
Re:More of the AI patina is rubbing off (Score:4, Funny)
AI: Actually Indians
Not who you want in charge of road safety.. (Score:3, Informative)
I mean, this is a country where babies don't wear motorcycle helmets.
I'm shocked, shocked (Score:2)
Someone should tip Markey off that the situations is far worse. We actually have foreigners flying planes in US airspace.
That's way mo information than I expected (Score:1)
We need way mo disclosures like this from these companies.
Re: (Score:2)
It makes a lot of sense. Cars do 99% of the work themselves, you only need a small number of drivers, and they can be anywhere in the world.