- This was from congressional testimony this past week by executives from Waymo and Tesla, video and automated transcript here: https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/tesla-and-wa...
- I was once in a waymo stopped at a red light. Prior to the light turning green I felt a split second where the car's brake had been released, anticipating the change and then accelerating immediately when the light changed.
Since this experience I've just assumed all waymos have some warehoused human drone pilot actually controlling it.
- Waymo remote operators cannot drive the car
- Waymo's article from 2024 about these operations (“much like phone-a-friend”): https://waymo.com/blog/2024/05/fleet-response/
- Having physical brains in the loop seems like a good thing.
- I think some are wondering if these overseas employees are driving cars in the US without a US driver's license.
- > “They provide guidance. They do not remotely drive the vehicles,” Peña told the Senate committee. “The Waymo vehicle is always in charge of the dynamic driving tasks, so that is just one additional input.”
- I think everyone knew this and is comforted by it. I’d be concerned if there weren’t humans ready to guide or take over. The company we should all be concerned about is Tesla, and their irresponsible way of falsely advertising full self driving capabilities. Who knows what those robotaxis are capable of.
- Ok, and?
- How reliable is it? Do they have drivers licenses and are they vetted for safety? Do they have access to internal data like cameras and voice from passengers? There's a lot going in here beyind that, all of which needs answers and should be made clear upfront.
The phillipines is a major source of scams, having random anonymous pinoys with access to things many assume are private matters could become a massive problem. Say you're on your way to visit your daughter and you're discussing concerns about her health problems, say the scammer finds your daughter on SM, gets extra details and uses this to sift through any of the hundreds of leaked personal info databses. They cold call the daughter as a telemarketer and get her talking for as long as they can. They tanscribe her voice data using whisper and can now clone her voice through any number of tools. They call you, pretending to be your daughter, in a panic, asking if you could please help her pay the medical invoice that the clinic just emailed you, or they'll reposess her car. Why would you even think its a scam? You pay, only to find out a week later when ranting to your daughter about how outrageous it is they tried to repo a sick womans car, that it was all a scam.
That's just _one_ plausible scenario in which this is a problem, if you can't think of more perhaps you should keep your comments out of the discussion, because at present you've contributed nothing but ignorance.
- Then they’re not really self driving are they?
- My assumption is they can provide input such as "you should make a left/right lane change" to get out of a "stuck" location.
So when the car's systems prevent it from taking a specific action, they can override it for a single instance.
- The assistants don't have access to the gas pedal or steering wheel input. The car is the only thing actually piloting the car i.e. self driving
* Unless it gets super stuck, then a human drives out and gets into the physical driver seat and takes over
- Do they have driver's licenses from a US state?
- Is Waymo software licensed by a dmv ?
- Yes. Something you should intuit, and is eaisly confirmed with a quick search. It is licensed to drive and the conditions underwhich it may do so are clearly stipulated. If it didnt require a license elon would have his deathtraps littering roadsides with mangled flesh and steel everywhere. Perhaps ask yourself why you asked such a misguided question and consider what you can do different in your cognitive patternd to avoid it in the future.
61 points by anigbrowl 9 hours ago | 16 comments