Autonomous ride-hailing services companies have built their image on the concept that their vehicles fully drive themselves.
The reality, however, is that the vehicles still require human intervention from remote operators, who are tasked with making critical decisions that the cars’ AI can’t safely navigate, like whether to abandon a blocked lane or what to do in an unexpected construction zone.
We’ve known for years that Waymo still has to fall back on these agents on occasion — but details have remained extremely sparse, allowing conspiracy theories about the company’s fleet not being autonomous at all to flourish online, as Wired reports.
Lawmakers at a Congressional hearing earlier this month weren’t impressed when Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, declined to elaborate on how many “fleet response team” or “remote assistance” members the company employs, or even where exactly in the world they’re located. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) pointed out the liability and cybersecurity implications of “having people overseas influencing American vehicles.”
In a blog post last week, Waymo’s VP and global head of operations Ryan McNamara provided significantly more clarity. He revealed that the company currently has around “70 Remote Assistance agents on duty worldwide at any given time, including [Event Response Team],” which is “exclusively based in the US” and handles complex interactions, such as collisions, engagement with law enforcement, and regulatory agencies.
“Waymo’s service does not rely on remote drivers,” he wrote, saying the remote operators “respond to specific requests for information initiated by the Waymo Driver — our automated driving system (ADS) — and provide advice which the system can decide to use or reject.”
Waymo currently has a fleet of 3,000 vehicles, which means there’s roughly one human agent per 41 or so vehicles, supporting the company’s claims that its confusingly-named “Waymo Driver” software is in control of the vehicle the vast majority of the time.
In a letter addressed to Markey specifically, the company revealed that it “operates four geographically redundant locations” for its remote assistance centers in Arizona, Michigan, and in “two cities in the Philippines.” Roughly half of the 70 remote assistance agents are located in the Philippines, according to the letter.
Waymo also responded to Markey’s concerns that remote operators in the Southeast Asian island nation may not be qualified to operate vehicles in the United States, clarifying that possession of a “valid driver’s license recognized by the Philippine Land Transportation Office” and a specific level of English proficiency are required.
While certain key questions remain unanswered — for instance, how often remote assistants are required to intervene daily — it’s a refreshing instance of transparency, allowing us a glimpse into how humans remain a part of the equation when it comes to robotaxis.
Waymo reiterated that its software was safe, claiming that in its “first 127 million fully autonomous miles,” the vehicles’ software was “involved in 90 percent fewer serious injury crashes or worse compared to human drivers in the same areas — a tenfold increase in safety.”
In reality, the topic of whether robotaxis are indeed safer than human drivers remains hotly contested. Proponents say banning them would be the equivalent of killing people, while critics say the data is cherry-picked and that self-driving cars still make plenty of mistakes that humans wouldn’t.
More on Waymo: It Turns Out That When Waymos Are Stumped, They Get Intervention From Workers in the Philippines
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