Remote assistance

Remote assistance is a human-in-the-loop layer that takes over decision-making for an autonomous vehicle in ambiguous situations — typically routing decisions, complex intersections, unusual obstacles. Distinct from full teleoperation (a remote human directly driving the vehicle in closed loop) and from a safety driver (a human in the driver's seat). Every commercially operating robotaxi service uses some form of this layer.

The distinction matters because remote assistance is often hidden behind "fully autonomous" marketing. Waymo, Zoox, Pony AI, and WeRide all publish or have disclosed use of remote-assistance teams. The ratio of human assistants per active vehicle is a meaningful unit-economics metric — a service requiring 1 assistant per 5 vehicles has fundamentally different cost structure than one requiring 1 per 50. Most published cost-per-mile claims don't include the remote-assistance operations cost.