Tesla hiring workers to remotely control its robo-taxis

Tesla is likely further away from deploying its self driving taxi fleet than Musk promised
Nov 27, 20247:05 PM EST
1 comment

Tesla has posted a job listing for an engineer to help build a low-latency network to help Tesla’s fleet of robot taxis navigate tricky terrain. This is a forgotten industry standard, with other self-driving companies like Waymo and Cruise employing similar tactics to help their cars when they get confused.

This job posting also mentions that the teleoperation network will also apply to Tesla’s robots, which goes to show how far away the company truly is from actually achieving the AI dreams that were shown off at the cyber taxi event earlier this year. The listing also mentions that the remote operators will use state-of-the-art VR rigs to interface with the robots or cars, and the developer needs to be fluent in Python, C++ and Unreal Engine. Tesla said that it would start operating robot taxis in parts of Texas and California in Q2 of 2025, but I expect that date to slip considerably since there isn’t any teleoperations network or team assembled yet.

From the job posting, it also seems like Tesla is going to enable its fleet of self-driving cars to be driven by remote operators, while Waymo, on the other hand, only allows its cars to ask questions to its remote team instead of being fully controlled.

While it’s disappointing to know that AI and self-driving software aren’t far enough along actually reliably to control cars or robots, it’s not that surprising. That said, in other companies, there are often times when a single remote driver might be monitoring more than one car, and accidents can still happen. Earlier this year, a remote driver accidentally sent a Waymo through a red light, causing an accident. And because the Waymo system doesn’t involve a virtual wheel for the remote driver, the computer is actually considered the one who caused the accident which can lead to a lot more legal hurdles in the case of a serious crash.

Source: Telsa, Electrek, Phil Koopman

MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.