Government Docs Reveal New Details About Tesla and Waymo Robotaxis’ Human Babysitters

Are self-driving vehicles really just big, remote-controlled cars, with nameless and faceless people in far-off call centers piloting the things from behind consoles? As the vehicles and their science fiction-like software expand to more cities, the conspiracy theory has rocketed around group chats and TikToks. It’s been powered, in part, by the reluctance of self-driving car companies to talk in specifics about the humans who help make their robots go.

But this month, in government documents submitted by Alphabet subsidiary Waymo and electric automaker Tesla, the companies have revealed more details about the people and programs that help the vehicles when their software gets confused.

The details of these companies' “remote assistance” programs are important because the humans supporting the robots are critical in ensuring the cars are driving safely on public roads, industry experts say. Even robotaxis that run smoothly most of the ...