Tesla's 'Autonomous' Robotaxis to Rely on Remote Human Operators

Tesla Is Looking to Hire a Team to Remotely Control Its 'Self-Driving' Robotaxis

Elon Musk's "fully autonomous" cars will, like other robotaxi vehicles, rely on remote human pilots. Elon Musk has promised that his EV company Tesla will roll out "fully autonomous" vehicles in the next few years. Musk recently unveiled what he called the "Cybercab" and said that Tesla plans to launch a robotaxi service by 2026, competing with other big-name brands currently operating in the space. However, "fully autonomous," as Musk has used it, might be a bit of a misnomer. Recent reports show the company is planning to hire a human team to remotely troubleshoot its robotaxi operations. A recently spotted Tesla job listing advertises a role to build out a remote teleoperations team for the firm's upcoming robotaxi fleet. "Tesla AI’s Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots," the listing notes, highlighting an additional need to assist Musk's nascent line of Tesla robots. "Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely," the listing states. The job post also notes that such a teleoperation center requires "building highly optimized low latency reliable data streaming over unreliable transports in the real world." Tele-operators can be "transported" into the robotaxi via a "state-of-the-art VR rig," it adds. Tesla would not be the first robotaxi company to use this method. In fact, it's an industry standard. It was previously reported that Cruise, the robotaxi company owned by General Motors, was employing remote human assistants to troubleshoot when its vehicles ran into trouble (the vehicles appear to have run into trouble every four to five miles). Google's Waymo is also thought to employ the same practice, as does Zoox, the robotaxi firm owned by Amazon. In general, such methods seem to be part of a broader trend in which companies market their products as "autonomous" or AI-powered, only to later reveal that much of the work that the product does is actually performed by low-wage human contractors. Last year it was reported that some of the pivotal work behind ChatGPT, OpenAI's prized chatbot, was powered by human workers who were only being paid $15 per hour. Silicon Valley wants us to believe that their autonomous products are a kind of self-guided magic, but the technology is clearly not there yet. A quick peak behind the curtain has consistently revealed a product base that, at a minimum, is still deeply reliant on human workforces.

Tesla seeks human 'remote operators' to help 'autonomous' robotaxi service

A new job listing hints the Cybercab fleet may not be as 'full self-driving' as advertised. Tesla may advertise its impending Cybercab robotaxi fleet as a self-driving service, but new job listings indicate human workers may still be required to remotely drive the cars. As spotted on Wednesday by Gizmodo, Tesla is currently accepting applications for C++ software engineers to join the Teleoperation wing of its "Tesla Bot and Robotaxi" division. Employees will focus on designing a system to provide "remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots" as they "operate autonomously in challenging environments." "As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely," the company stipulates. To do this, software engineers will reportedly first help build a program using Unreal services that will allow Remote Operators to take over robotaxis and Optimus bots during particularly difficult and complex tasks. This will involve being "transported into the device's world" through a "state-of-the-art VR rig," that is still in development. "Our goal is to integrate our hardware, firmware and backend expertise to achieve a cutting-edge system... Working with hardware teams, you will drive requirements, make design decisions and implement software integration for this custom teleoperation system," Tesla says on its application page. The potential future of Tesla's Cybercab and robotaxi services align an ongoing industry trend of advertising "autonomous," AI-powered products that are often overseen by human gig workers. General Motors' Cruise robotaxi company, for example, currently subs in remote employees to help steer vehicles out of difficult-to-compute situations. Similar approaches are also rumored to be in place for competitors like Zoox and Waymo. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicle programs, particularly Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" Mode, have faced increasing industry criticism and regulatory investigations over their potential hazards posed to both passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians. News that human workers will frequently handle robotaxi and Optimus operations follows a similar pattern for the company. Tesla's first "reveal" of its humanoid robot in 2021 involved a person wearing an Optimus costume. Last month, the company's "We, Robot" event on the Warner Bros. Discovery studio included actual robots crafting cocktails for guests -- but it didn't take long before it was revealed the supposedly autonomous machines were actually remotely piloted by humans. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly promised the impending debut of his company's robotaxi fleet on public roads, and currently estimates Cybercab services to arrive by the end of 2026. Any interested applicants will work out of Tesla's Palo Alto offices, and can expect a salary somewhere between $120,000 and $318,000, "cash and stock awards," as well as benefits.

As Tesla Struggles to Make Self-Driving Work, It's Hiring a Team to Remote-Control Its Robotaxis

"As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely." For better or worse, Tesla -- under the direction of Elon Musk -- is serious about its robotaxi ambitions. And so it's preparing to use the same sneaky trick that its competitors use to make their cars seem fully autonomous: hiring people to remotely pilot them. As Electrek reports, the EV automaker has posted a new job listing anticipating a "teleoperation" team that will control its robotaxis whenever they get stuck. Specifically, the role is for a C++ software engineer who can develop an application using the Unreal game engine that will allow "remote operators" to take over Tesla's robotaxis from inside a virtual reality environment. "As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely," Tesla writes in the job listing. You may be thinking, wait -- aren't these robotaxis supposed to drive themselves? Yes, they are. But even the most capable autonomous vehicle software gets confused sometimes. When it does, a human in an office somewhere jacks in and takes over. This's the dirty secret of the self-driving industry, and with "driverless" vehicles in particular. Regular human intervention is what ensures that everything runs smoothly. Even Waymo, the leading robotaxi company, relies on a rotation of remote technicians to bail out its driverless vehicles when they're flummoxed by a situation on the road. So does the Amazon-backed startup Zoox and General Motors' Cruise division. But you won't hear any of them bragging about it. Waymo didn't acknowledge the role of its remote operators until this year, and it and others keep them a relatively opaque part of robotaxi operations. We don't know how often humans are needed to take over or exactly how large these teams are. For a rough idea, however, Cruise reportedly staffed about 1.5 workers per vehicle. In short, it's not surprising that Tesla, which has a lot of catching up to do in the robotaxi space, is going down the same route. However, Tesla has a lackluster and even dangerous track record with self-driving tech. We wouldn't be surprised if it's forced to depend on a teleoperation team even more than its competitors, because neither iteration of its current self-driving capabilities, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, are currently considered safe enough to operate without constant human supervision. As a result, Tesla's driving modes are only considered to be at Level 2 autonomy, while Waymo's robotaxis are considered Level 4, requiring no driver to be present. As we've just explained, though, even that's misleading, because the lack of a physical driver is compensated with a virtual one on standby. Misleading people, though, is kind of Musk's forte. Remember when he showed off those robots at Tesla's robotaxi event -- before they turned out to be remotely controlled puppets?

Tesla preps a remote control team for robotaxi - taking a page out of Waymo's book

Tesla has confirmed through a new job listing that it plans to establish a 'teleoperation' team to remote control its upcoming robotaxi fleet. It's something that Tesla really needs in order to deliver a robotaxi service, and something that market leader Waymo has already deployed. Waymo and Tesla have widely different approaches to self-driving. The former is using a variety of sensors from cameras to lidars and operates its self-driving ride-hailing service, which is already commercially available in several markets, in geo-fenced areas that are mapped. As for Tesla, the automaker relies entirely on cameras and neural networks, which it plans to train to the level of being capable of operating anywhere autonomously. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often dismissed Waymo's strategy as "not being scalable" due to the mapping and geo-fencing issues. But now there's one thing that Tesla is taking from Waymo's approach: teleoperation. Waymo can be a bit vague when talking about the level of teleoperation with its vehicles, but we know that the vehicles can send a "stuck" alert and a team of remote Waymo employees can debug them. Now, Tesla is also establishing a teleoperation team, according to a new job listing: Tesla AI's Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots. Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely. This requires building highly optimized low latency reliable data streaming over unreliable transports in the real world. At Tesla, we control the entire hardware and software stack, end to end. Our goal is to integrate our hardware, firmware and backend expertise to achieve a cutting-edge system. Our remote operators are transported into the device's world using a state-of-the-art VR rig that allows them to remotely perform complex and intricate tasks. Working with hardware teams, you will drive requirements, make design decisions and implement software integration for this custom teleoperation system. The job is specifically for C++ Software Engineer and the main responsibility is to develop the application that the remote operators will use to assist the robotaxis. Tesla claims that it will start deploying fleets of robotaxis in California and Texas in Q2 2025. As for the humanoid robots, Tesla has already started to use them for simple tasks in its manufacturing facilities, but that's expected to ramp up next year. This should enable Tesla to launch a service similar to Waymo without having to achieve a "superhuman level of miles between disengagement." However, it wouldn't be exactly what Tesla promised: level 5 full autonomy. Again, it would enable a similar service that Waymo has been offering for years. To be clear, I'm not against it. It will help Tesla deliver a useful robot ride-hailing service. It will also be interesting to learn the level of teleoperation Tesla plans to deploy. For example, Waymo has confirmed that its remote team can answer questions from its vehicles to help unstuck them, but it's not clear if they can actually be remotely operated. Tesla did lose some credibility on that front after its 'We, Robot' event after it didn't disclose that it's robots at the event were remotely control before demonstrating them.

Tesla is looking for AI Teleoperation workers: remote control robotaxis, humanoid robots

Tesla is actively hiring from its AI Teleoperation team, with successful applicants needing to use a state-of-the-art VR rig to remotely use and train their robotaxis and humanoid robots. We last heard that the company was paying $48 per hour for staffers to wear a motion capture suit and use a VR headset to train the robots, but now Tesla's AI Teleoperation team will provide remote access to their robotaxis and humanoid robots, with state-of-the-art VR rigs to remotely operate them in the real world. What to expect: Tesla AI's Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots. Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely. This requires building highly optimized low latency reliable data streaming over unreliable transports in the real world. At Tesla, we control the entire hardware and software stack, end to end. Our goal is to integrate our hardware, firmware and backend expertise to achieve a cutting-edge system. Our remote operators are transported into the device's world using a state-of-the-art VR rig that allows them to remotely perform complex and intricate tasks. Working with hardware teams, you will drive requirements, make design decisions and implement software integration for this custom teleoperation system".