Senators grill Waymo and Tesla over robotaxi safety, liability, and China

During a two-hour hearing in the US Senate Wednesday, top executives from Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to take action on long-stalled legislation to speed the deployment of self-driving cars on public roads. But after two hours of Q&A around a number of hot-button topics, including robotaxi safety, legal liability, remote operation, and China, it was clear that lawmakers were no closer to passing any bill related to autonomous vehicles.

Waymo faced questions about its decision to use a Chinese-made vehicle for its next-generation robotaxi, as well as several incidents in which its vehicles failed to stop behind a school bus during student pickups. Tesla was asked about its decision to remove radar from its vehicles, its position on binding arbitration, and its misleading marketing around its autonomous features. And officials from both companies were asked whether they believed that the US was at risk of being overtaken by China without a national framework regulating autonomous vehicles. Naturally, they agreed.

“For America to lead in AV technology, we must modernize regulations that inhibit the industry’s ability to innovate,” Lars Moravy, vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla, said during his opening statement. “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, such as electric drive trains, automated driving systems, and over-the-air software updates. We need American leadership for AV rules and regulations.”

But whether Congress can finally pass legislation to regulate autonomous vehicles remains uncertain. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and oversaw today’s hearing, said he thinks it can be done as part of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, which covers federal funding for highways, transit, and safety programs.

Given the nature of the questions during the hearing, lawmakers remain divided over the potential benefits of driverless cars — and the companies operating them.

“Safety” was the watchword of the hearing. Representatives from Waymo and Tesla both said it was their guiding principle. And several senators agreed that the roads would be safer with more autonomous vehicles on the road.

But both companies were grilled over specific safety lapses involving their vehicles. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said that any federal legislation would need to address Tesla’s deceptive marketing practices.

“Tesla was allowed to market their technology, which they knew needed human supervision, as Autopilot because there were no federal guardrails,” she said.

But whether the federal government is up to the task is an open question, Cantwell added, noting that under Elon Musk’s DOGE, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lost 25 percent of its employees, leaving the Office of Automation at one point with only four staff members. That has resulted in less enforcement: NHTSA initiated significantly fewer recall investigations in 2025 compared to previous years, she noted.

“Are we going to just continue to let people die in the United States?” Cantwell asked. “Without strong federal oversight, it’s no wonder states are seeking to fill the void.”

Meanwhile, Waymo’s failure to stop during school bus operations in Austin, Texas, and the recent incident in which a robotaxi struck a child at low speed in Santa Monica, California, came up during the hearing.

Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, said the company is collecting data across different lighting patterns and conditions, integrating those learnings into its system, to help prevent these incidents from happening again. And he noted that Waymo safely navigates thousands of school bus encounters every week without incident. What Peña didn’t mention, though, was that Waymo’s vehicles were recorded illegally passing stopped school buses even after issuing a software update meant to address the problem.

Liability and arbitration

Binding arbitration, in which companies force customers to resolve disputes in courts that favor the company, was also raised during the hearing. Cantwell said she would not support legislation that barred injured parties from suing robotaxi companies.

She was joined from across the aisle by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), who expressed concern about driverless car companies relying on lengthy terms and conditions or arbitration clauses to limit accountability. He pressed Waymo’s Peña on the issue, who deflected by explaining it wasn’t his area of expertise.

Moreno also pressed the witnesses over legal liability when a driverless vehicle crashes. Both Peña and Moravy said their respective companies would accept liability in incidents where the technology was at fault.

Bryant Walker Smith, a professor in the University of South Carolina’s law and engineering schools who specializes in emerging transportation technologies, was also on the witness panel. He said that NHTSA historically has played a role in changing industry culture by confronting companies that continued to promote defective technologies, such as faulty airbags, and forcing a cultural shift.

The threat posed by China came up numerous times during the hearing, with Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association CEO Jeff Farrah warning legislators that China could become the “global leader” in autonomous vehicles without congressional action.

China became a sticking point for Waymo, too, when Moreno quizzed Peña on the Alphabet-owned company’s decision to use a Chinese-made vehicle for its next-generation robotaxi platform. Current US law prohibits the import of any vehicle with autonomous or connectivity software that originates from China. But Peña explained that the Geely-made vehicles are stripped of all their software before they arrive in the US. Waymo installs all the autonomy software itself, and there is no data sharing with anyone outside the US.

But Moreno sounded unconvinced.

“So giving a natural market to a Chinese company to ship us cars is making us better and creating more jobs for Americans?” the senator said. “That’s completely ridiculous.”

Remote operators and design domain

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) brought up the issue of remote operators, which can occasionally help robotaxis navigate tricky situations. Markey pressed Peña on the location of Waymo’s operators, and Peña responded that while some are based in the United States, others are located abroad, specifically in the Philippines. Peña was unable to provide a percentage breakdown, which Markey criticized as alarming given the safety-critical nature of the role.

Markey also raised concerns about latency, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the broader implications of shipping remaining human jobs overseas while replacing domestic drivers with automation. He called the idea of “transatlantic backseat drivers” both dangerous and unacceptable.

He also criticized Tesla for failing to put geographic limitations on its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, arguing that the company is failing to follow the best practices of every other AV company.

“Tesla is putting American lives at risk,” Markey fumed. “And that is unconscionable.”