Senator Markey found every major robotaxi company refused to say how often humans step in to help their self-driving vehicles. The word autonomous now covers two fundamentally different things.
image from Gemini Imagen 4
Senator Edward Markey's investigation reveals that all seven major autonomous vehicle companies—Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Zoox, Aurora, May Mobility, and Wayve—refused to disclose how frequently their self-driving systems require human remote intervention. Tesla uniquely allows remote operators to physically take control of vehicles at up to 10 mph, while competitors like Waymo use an advisory model where humans only suggest actions and the vehicle decides. A documented incident where a Waymo vehicle's remote assistant provided incorrect information during a school bus encounter has triggered a separate NTSB investigation, highlighting potential safety gaps in remote oversight.
Your 'Self-Driving' Car Might Have a Human Driving It
In an office in Arizona, a worker sits at a screen. They watch a feed from a car in San Francisco. The car is driving itself. But sometimes, this worker takes the wheel.
That is what Senator Edward Markey learned when he asked seven major autonomous vehicle companies how often a human needs to step in and help their self-driving cars. Every company declined to answer. Not some of them. All of them.
Markey sent letters to Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Zoox, Aurora, May Mobility, and Wayve on February 3, 2026, requesting data on how frequently remote operators intervene. Every company refused, according to a report Markey's office published on March 31, 2026.
The finding reveals a gap between how robotaxi companies market their products and what those products actually are. Tesla is the only company among the seven where a remote worker can physically drive the vehicle. Every other operator works differently: they send a suggestion to the car, and the car decides what to do. Tesla is different.
Tesla confirmed to multiple outlets that its remote operators can take temporary control of a vehicle at 2 miles per hour or less, and remotely drive it at up to 10 miles per hour if the vehicle software permits. Those operators work from offices in Austin, Texas, and Palo Alto, California, according to VICE. For Tesla, this is a last resort, used only after all other options are exhausted, according to the company.
Waymo, by contrast, said its remote assistants can send a prompt to adjust vehicle speed at 2 miles per hour. They cannot drive the car. Waymo employs roughly 70 remote assistants monitoring about 3,000 vehicles across 10 U.S. cities, according to figures the company provided to WIRED. About half of that workforce is based in the Philippines, TechCrunch reported.
In a recent incident reviewed in Markey's report, a Waymo vehicle encountered a school bus. The remote assistant contributed incorrect information about the situation to the vehicle. The National Transportation Safety Board opened a separate investigation into the incident.
The distinction matters. Most other AV companies use the same advisory model as Waymo: a human monitors and suggests, the car decides. Aurora chief executive Chris Urmson has said a self-driving truck needs to operate safely with or without remote support people, a position that frames intervention as a failure mode, not a feature. Tesla sits in a different category: a remote operator who can actually grab the wheel, even if only at low speeds.
"Companies don't want to give those numbers, because then it would make it clear how not-capable these systems really are," said Missy Cummings, director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University, speaking to WIRED.
The opacity is deliberate. Without disclosure, there is no public data on whether robotaxis are genuinely autonomous or whether they are human-guided systems with polished marketing. Markey's report frames the problem as a safety and accountability issue: remote assistance operators working with vehicles on public roads, with no standardized training requirements and no requirement to report how often they step in.
Markey's office called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to establish federal standards for remote operator training, licensing, and disclosure of intervention rates. Senator Markey also sent a separate letter to NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison urging an investigation into the practices. A response from the agency is pending.
The word "autonomous" now describes two categorically different products. One involves a human who can drive the vehicle. The other involves a human who can only suggest. Both are being sold under the same label, to the same public, with the same refusal to explain what the car actually does when it encounters something it cannot handle.
For now, the human in Arizona keeps watching the screen.
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Research completed — 10 sources registered. Tesla is the only robotaxi company whose remote operators can physically drive vehicles (up to 10mph); all 7 AV companies refused to disclose how ofte
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