Autonomous vehicle companies are refusing to disclose key details about their use of remote assistance teams, including how often these workers are forced to intervene to help their self-driving cars.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) had asked robotaxi companies to disclose the information as part of his office’s investigation into the use of Remote Assistance Operators (RAOs). The senator’s office sent letters to seven robotaxi companies – Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo and Amazon Zoox – asking for information about their use of remote workers to monitor driverless vehicles and sometimes intervene when the vehicles need help. Their responses are then detailed in the report.
The investigation began with a February hearing, during which Markey questioned representatives of Waymo and Tesla about the use of remote assistance operators. During the hearing, Waymo’s chief security officer revealed that some of Waymo’s remote agents were based in the Philippines. Additionally, there have been some safety incidents related to remote agents, including an incident in Austin, Texas, in which a Waymo vehicle passed a school bus with an extended stop sign after receiving inaccurate information from a remote assistant.
Markey says there should be strict rules regarding the use of remote assistants. But robotaxi companies have defended the use of remote agents, arguing that they are an important backstop for technology that could operate driverless vehicles.
In their responses, the companies revealed several interesting details about their use of remote workers. For example, Waymo is the only company to use remote agents based abroad. And it is the only company where a “large portion” of its employees do not have a US driver’s license. Waymo said its remote workers in the Philippines are required to have a driver’s license issued by that country.
It also revealed new details about Tesla’s use of remote operators. Last year, Tesla launched a limited robotaxi pilot in Austin. But unlike Waymo, most of the company’s vehicles still feature a safety driver in the front passenger seat. In response to Markey’s inquiry, Tesla acknowledged that it sometimes uses remote workers to drive vehicles at speeds up to 10 mph. By comparison, Waymo said its remote agents can send signals to move the vehicle at speeds up to 2 mph, but cannot control it directly.
“[Remote assistance operator] Direct input is a last resort and is always limited in scope and duration,” Karen Steakley, Tesla’s director of public policy and business development, wrote in her response to the senator. “This capability enables Tesla to immediately relocate a vehicle that may be in a compromised state, reducing the need to wait for a first responder or Tesla field representative to manually recover the vehicle.”
Tension has been rising over the past few weeks over remote assistance for robotaxis. Markey called the refusal to disclose the number of remote interventions a “stunning lack of transparency on the part of AV companies”, and concluded that regulatory changes would be needed to operate the systems safely.
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