A report by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) has highlighted a lack of transparency among autonomous vehicle technology companies in the US. Markey sent letters to seven companies, including Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox, asking them how often their vehicles rely on remote staff. These companies all reportedly refused to answer. Marky is now calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate these companies' use of remote assistance workers and is working on legislation to impose strict guardrails on AV companies’ use of such operators. Other notable developments include Uber's acquisition of Berlin-based startup Blacklane, which provides on-demand, black-car chauffeur services.