Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio accused Waymo of bypassing federal restrictions on Chinese-made connected vehicles during a Senate hearing on autonomous vehicles.
Moreno called the Alphabet-owned company’s partnership with Geely‘s brand Zeekr “completely ridiculous” while accusing the company of bypassing the connected vehicles rule.
“It’s simple: no Chinese cars on American roads. Especially not Chinese AVs sending American data back to the CCP,” the US Senator wrote on X following the hearing on Thursday.
“We cannot allow Big Tech to undercut the American auto market using loopholes & backdoors to put banned Chinese autos on American roads,” he added.
The exchange came during a Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee hearing where executives from Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to pass federal autonomous vehicle legislation.
The companies warned that China risks becoming the global leader without swift congressional action.
“We are locked in a race with Chinese companies for the future of autonomous vehicles,” Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña told lawmakers, adding that without a clear national framework, the US risks a “fragmented landscape of state regulations” that slows investment.
Moreno seized on that framing to challenge Waymo‘s vehicle sourcing strategy.
Waymo-Zeekr Partnership
Waymo first announced its partnership with Zeekr in December 2021, with the Chinese automaker developing a purpose-built robotaxi for deployment in Waymo‘s US ride-hailing fleet.
The vehicle is built on a proprietary mobility architecture specifically for autonomous use cases, the companies said at the time.
Waymo imports the vehicles to the US and then integrates its autonomous driving system.
The company rebranded last month the model from “Zeekr RT” to “Ojai” — named after a village in the mountains above Los Angeles — ahead of its commercial deployment.
Waymo x China
“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,” Moreno said.
“The cars that you’re looking to bring into the United States are Chinese automobiles owned by Chinese auto companies, are they not?” the US Senator questioned.
Peña acknowledged that Waymo uses vehicles from Zeekr, a subsidiary of Chinese automaker Geely, but defended the arrangement.
“Those Chinese vehicles, the Geely vehicles, have no smarts, no connectivity,” Peña said. “What we do is we install our autonomous driving system right here in America and we don’t share any information whatsoever.”
Waymo‘s Chief Safety Officer argued that using a stable vehicle supply from Zeekr enables the company to scale more quickly and efficiently, which he said helps the US retain its lead over China. Moreno dismissed the explanation.
“So 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,” the senator replied.
Philippines Remote Operations
The hearing also revealed that Waymo outsources a portion of its remote assistance operations to the Philippines, as reported by EV on Thursday.
When pressed on how many operators are located outside the US, Peña said he did not have the breakdown available.
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts criticized the concept of “transatlantic backseat drivers” as both dangerous and unacceptable, and raised concerns about autonomous vehicles displacing US taxi drivers.
Tesla’s Take
Tesla‘s Vice-President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy recalled Elon Musk’s focus on safety.
Over a decade ago, Musk said that that one of his biggest fears was “the possibility that someone could do, as you described, take over an autonomous vehicle and do something nefarious.”
“Since that day, we’ve been committed to making sure that never happens,” Moravy guaranteed.
