So the problem with these things is they Don't really work. Google admitted that at a congressional hearing.
I'm going to go ahead and ask what - specifically - Google "admitted" in said hearing. I doubt it's "don't really work" but leave open the possibility that's what was admitted, so please provide quotes.
They're basically remote controlled cars with really really fancy driver assist features.
Really? It's my understanding that they're autonomous the vast majority of the time, remote-controlled in very rare circumstances, and driver-assist never. Passengers in these cars aren't permitted to manually drive them, so driver-assist isn't a thing. I grant that I may be misinformed, but again, I invite you to provide details for your assertion.
Frighteningly
Well, yes. The media - be it traditional or social - is rather good at that, regardless of objective statistics.
it appears that they are sometimes piloted from the Philippines.
That feels like an odd thing to be frightened of. It's not Mars where there are minutes of latency. Why would the Philippines - specifically - be any more (or less) concerning than if the drivers were in a building a kilometer away from the vehicle?
Publicly Google will tell you that's not true but that's not what they told Congress when they were under oath...
That's not been a secret for ages now. In complicated situations the autonomous system can't cope with, it can call in human assistance. I've not heard that's a common or nominal mode of operation, but maybe I'm lacking in some facts. Which - unsurprisingly - you are invited to provide.
The obvious problem with all this is that they're going to have problems with ambulances and such.
That's the obvious problem? I'd've thought there are plenty, but fine. We've all know there are a lot of refinements and adjustments needed, both for the car operators and the rest of us outside of them.
And that's the waymo ones that are the best and most functional. The ones from Tesla which are so bad even Tesla doesn't really want them on the roads are a disaster waiting to happen. It does however keep their stock price up...
Sure.
Frankly these things shouldn't be on the road with us but it's not like we have any say in anything anymore
Okay, I'm no fan of these things and wouldn't volunteer to ride in one but really, this is exaggeration. The actual safety records have shown they're marginally better than human drivers. Sure, there are outliers, exceptions and downright frustrating things like what this article is about but as far as I've had any information, they're just that... outliers. Human drivers are the ones I really worry about, personally.
