What started as a policy hearing on self-driving cars turned tense for Waymo.
Lawmakers on Wednesday accused the robotaxi company of relying too heavily on Chinese vehicles and offshore labor, leading to a tense back-and-forth during a two-hour Senate hearing.
After autonomous vehicle executives said earlier in the hearing that US companies risk falling behind Chinese rivals, senators flipped that back on Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña.
“You said in your testimony that we’re locked in a race with China, but it seems like you’re getting in bed with China,” Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said, pointing to Waymo’s plans to use vehicles made by a subsidiary of Geely, a Chinese automaker.
Peña said the Alphabet-owned company uses a mix of platforms, but Moreno pushed back, questioning if Waymo was using a “backdoor” to sidestep the federal “connected vehicle” rule, which restricts foreign-linked technology in sensitive systems.
Under US rules finalized last year, vehicles with certain autonomous or connected software tied to China will face import restrictions, though key provisions are not yet fully in effect.
Waymo first partnered with Zeekr, a Chinese automaker owned by Geely, in 2021. Since then, the company has spent several years adapting and testing a minivan-style vehicle built by Zeekr for its robotaxi program.
A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch last month that it will rename the Zeekr robotaxi to Ojai, citing concerns that the US public may be unfamiliar with the Zeekr brand.
Peña said the Chinese-made cars have “no connectivity” and that the driving system is installed in the US. He added that tapping a broader global supply chain helps the company scale faster and remain resilient.
Moreno wasn’t buying it. “Giving a natural market to a Chinese company to ship us cars is making us better and creating more jobs for Americans? That’s completely ridiculous,” he said.
On overseas labor, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts called Waymo’s use of remote human operators in countries outside the US “completely unacceptable.”
Peña said that while some operators are located in the US, others work abroad, including in the Philippines. These operators typically step in when robotaxis encounter unusual situations.
“Having people overseas influencing American vehicles is a safety issue,” Markey said. He warned that these workers may need to react “in a split second” during dangerous scenarios, yet are located overseas.
Markey also tied the issue to jobs, saying that Waymo is moving some roles overseas while developing technology that could replace US taxi and ride-hailing drivers.
Waymo and Tesla say the US must overtake China
Earlier in the hearing, Waymo and Tesla executives framed autonomous vehicles as a race the US cannot afford to lose.
Waymo warned that Chinese companies could set global standards for self-driving technology if Washington fails to act by setting regulations that could help companies move fast.
“We are locked in a race with Chinese companies for the future of autonomous vehicles,” Peña told lawmakers, adding that without a clear national framework, the US risks a “fragmented landscape of state regulations” that slows investment and limits access.
Tesla struck a similar note.
“For America to lead in AV technology, we must modernize regulations that inhibit the industry’s ability to innovate,” said Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, referring to autonomous vehicle technology.
“Federal regulations for vehicles have not kept up with the pace of the rapid evolution of technology. Many standards were implemented decades ago and do not adequately address modern advancements,” he added.
Industry leaders have repeatedly warned about China’s lead in the EV market.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an episode of The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast that “the Chinese are the 700-pound gorilla in the EV industry.”
“There’s no real competition from Tesla, GM, or Ford with what we’ve seen from China. It is completely dominating the EV landscape globally and more and more outside of China,” he said in September.
