Who’s Driving Waymo’s Self-driving Cars? Sometimes, The Police.

Last August, a occurrence ripped done 10 acres of writer connected either broadside of California’s I-280 adjacent Redwood City. Traffic backed up arsenic firefighters extinguished nan blaze, and California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers directed drivers to move astir and recreation nan incorrect measurement to exit nan freeway. 

Some of those drivers encountered a caller obstacle: a Waymo robotaxi.  

Footage of nan incident shows nan Waymo AV tried to walk stopped postulation by walking connected nan shoulder, only to upwind up reversing distant from nan oncoming wrong-way cars, earlier stopping altogether. 

The robotaxi wouldn’t budge, contempt efforts from nan company’s distant assistance team. So, Waymo turned to a assets that has go a reliable problem solver and called 911. 

“Highway patrol turned everyone around, but unluckily our car is not capable to move around,” 1 of Waymo’s distant assistance workers told an area 911 dispatcher, according to a signaling obtained by TechCrunch successful a nationalist records request. The worker wanted officers connected nan segment to thrust nan robotaxi distant and to put proscription for nan rider inside. 

Roughly 30 minutes aft Waymo called 911, a CHP serviceman sewage down nan instrumentality and drove nan robotaxi to a park-and-ride batch adjacent nan highway, a CHP incident study obtained by TechCrunch shows. From there, it was driven distant by 1 of Waymo’s “roadside assistance” workers, nan institution told TechCrunch. 

The Redwood City incident could beryllium viewed arsenic an separator case, an inevitable, yet mildly embarrassing blip successful Waymo’s quickly expanding robotaxi work network.

But this was not an isolated incident. Waymo has relied connected taxpayer-funded first responders to navigate its vehicles erstwhile they brushwood issues, contempt nan beingness of nan company’s ain roadside assistance team. In astatine slightest six instances identified by TechCrunch, first responders person had to return power of Waymo vehicles and move them retired of postulation during emergency situations, including 1 successful which an serviceman was successful nan mediate of responding to a wide shooting.

Waymo has precocious travel under criticism by lawmakers for its usage of distant assistance employees, including a fewer twelve who activity from nan Philippines, to thief its robotaxis determine nan champion way done analyzable situations. Its roadside assistance squad has received acold little attention.  

The company’s representatives ne'er mentioned nan roadside assistance workers astatine a testy March 2 hearing successful San Francisco astir nan behavior of Waymo’s robotaxis that became stalled during a awesome powerfulness outage successful December. At nan meeting, metropolis officials aired concerns that nan stuck autonomous vehicles impeded aliases pulled first responders distant from their superior jobs.

“What has started to hap is that our nationalist information officers and responders are having to beryllium nan ones to physically move [Waymos],” Mary Ellen Carroll, nan executive head of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management, said astatine nan hearing. “In a sense, they’re becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not deliberation is tenable.” 

Waymo told TechCrunch that its roadside assistance workers cleared dozens of stuck robotaxis during nan blackout, pinch a fistful still needing to beryllium moved by first responders.

“Waymo Roadside Assistance is simply a dedicated squad of specialists who lend other on-the-ground support to our fleet,” nan institution said successful an email to TechCrunch. “Waymo’s standards for roadside consequence and work value prioritize minimizing imaginable organization impacts.” 

The institution declined to reply TechCrunch’s questions astir really galore roadside assistance workers it uses, aliases which third-party companies mightiness employment them. Waymo besides didn’t opportunity really it plans to standard nan squad arsenic it races to motorboat successful about 20 much cities this year, expanding beyond its existent markets of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, and nan San Francisco Bay Area.  

Waymo’s helpers 

Aerial position of Waymo’s self-driving car fleet retention installation successful San Francisco.Image Credits:Getty Images

Waymo’s robotaxis supply much than 400,000 paid rides per week, a testament to nan company’s galore years processing self-driving technology. The robotaxis do trust connected humans for thief connected occasion, though, and it does this successful a fewer ways.  

The robotaxis request occasional guidance successful analyzable situations, particularly because — arsenic Waymo claims — nan institution is trying to beryllium arsenic cautious arsenic imaginable arsenic it scales its service.  

Waymo’s robotaxis person this guidance from nan “remote assistance” workers. At immoderate fixed time, location are astir 70 of these group monitoring Waymo’s fleet of astir 3,000 vehicles, nan institution has said. Half of these workers are based successful nan U.S. and half are based successful nan Philippines.

Those details, which were shared successful a letter to Congress successful February, generated blowback for Waymo complete concerns astir information and security. Waymo has defended its usage of distant assistants, claiming nan workers are well-qualified and that location is nary meaningful lag introduced owed to really acold distant they’re located, whether successful Arizona, Michigan, aliases nan Philippines.  

“Our vehicle-to-RA relationship is besides arsenic accelerated arsenic nan blink of an eye. Median one-way latency is astir 150 milliseconds for U.S.-based operations centers and 250 milliseconds for RA based abroad,” nan institution precocious wrote.  

Remote assistance workers execute a fewer tasks. If a Waymo conveyance encounters a real-world business that is tricky to navigate, it mightiness nonstop a petition to these workers to thief determine nan champion measurement through. Waymo is clear that these workers “provide proposal and support to nan [robotaxis] but do not straight control, steer, aliases thrust nan vehicle.” They besides respond to lower-priority requests from Waymo robotaxis, for illustration answering questions astir whether nan interior of a car is clean.

But this loop is not perfect.  

The National Transportation Safety Board precocious revealed that successful January, a Waymo successful Austin asked a distant assistance worker to corroborate whether a adjacent schoolhouse autobus was loading aliases unloading kids. The extremity motion and flashing lights were deployed, but nan distant assistance worker wrongly told nan robotaxi it could proceed. The Waymo past drove past nan schoolhouse autobus arsenic it was loading children, though nan bus’s “stop arms” were still extended, nan NTSB said.

Waymo told TechCrunch that it “regularly audit[s] RA responses, including correctness. If an incident is captured, it will beryllium instantly flagged for adjacent steps, ranging from further coaching to afloat decertification.”

When a Waymo gets successful a crash, aliases stuck successful an emergency, nan institution leans connected its “event consequence team.” Waymo says this squad is “exclusively based successful nan U.S.” — though they are still distant — and that they are “certified for much analyzable tasks for illustration coordinating pinch emergency responders and managing post-collision protocols.”  

By that definition, nan distant assistance worker who helped CHP move nan Waymo robotaxi distant from nan Redwood City incident was apt portion of that arena consequence team, though Waymo did not confirm.  

There are increasing pains here, too. Audio recordings from CHP dispatch, on pinch nan incident study obtained by TechCrunch, show that officers were nether nan belief for astir 10 minutes that Waymo wanted nan rider to thrust nan robotaxi distant from nan fire.  

It wasn’t until nan distant worker called 911 a 2nd clip that CHP realized an serviceman needed to thrust it distant from nan scene. (Waymo declined to reply circumstantial questions astir this miscommunication. The institution said it ne'er asks riders to return power of its vehicles.) 

A descent from A Waymo First responder presentation.Image Credits:Waymo

Then location is nan roadside assistance team. These workers handle “on-scene, nonstop interaction” activity and are often tasked pinch moving a vehicle. Waymo declined to reply questions astir really galore times these workers person moved a robotaxi, really galore are connected telephone astatine a fixed time, aliases really galore are successful each city.  

Some look to activity for Transdev, a third-party contractor that Waymo has utilized successful nan past, and a fewer moreover utilized to beryllium information drivers aliases monitors for Waymo, according to floor plan accusation connected LinkedIn.  

The institution besides told TechCrunch that it “require[s] section tow partners to support accelerated consequence capacity for urgent tow requests and strategically position support crossed our work areas.” 

“In nan arena that a Waymo conveyance needs support, we dispatch Waymo Roadside Assistance and/or section tow partners to assistance on-scene,” nan institution said successful a statement. “While we do not expect first responders to move our vehicles arsenic a matter of course, we admit that moments count successful emergency situations. Therefore, we designed a straightforward process that allows first responders to return power of nan conveyance wrong seconds.” 

Relying connected first responders  

While Waymo says it doesn’t expect first responders to interact pinch its vehicles, it keeps happening — and it’s not clear whether it will go wholly avoidable.  

In astatine slightest six cases complete nan past fewer months, first responders person had to manually navigate Waymo vehicles, including astatine 2 progressive crime scenes.

Earlier this month, an Austin constabulary serviceman had to move a Waymo retired of nan way of an ambulance that was responding to a wide shooting event. In February, a first responder successful Atlanta had to disengage a Waymo aft it drove into an progressive crime scene, earlier 1 of nan company’s roadside assistance workers “retrieved it,” according to nan company. And this week, a constabulary serviceman successful Nashville had to manually thrust a Waymo robotaxi distant after it sewage stuck successful an intersection. 

During nan March 2 proceeding successful San Francisco, metropolis officials many times asked Waymo what it would do to lessen dependence connected first responders. Waymo ne'er mentioned it has workers who are dedicated to moving vehicles during nan three-hour meeting.  

District supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who oversaw nan hearing, told TechCrunch successful an question and reply that he felt Waymo didn’t supply galore satisfactory answers. 

“I was asking: How are you going to return much accountability to guarantee that our first responders are not doing that?” he said. “And we did not get that reply successful nan proceeding that we were looking for, which is: What are they going to do to guarantee that they are going to return much ownership of that roadside assistance component?” 

A head connected Waymo’s incident consequence team, Sam Cooper, said astatine nan proceeding that nan institution has trained “more than 30,000 first responders globally connected really to interact” pinch its robotaxis. He besides touted Waymo’s collaboration pinch first responders successful designing nan strategy that allows them to return control.  

“We simply want to springiness them nan capability, successful that event, to adequately move that conveyance from nan segment and make that segment safe truthful that they’re capable to do their jobs,” he said. 

Cooper said Waymo has made “improvements to our surge-staffing capabilities” truthful that Waymo would beryllium amended prepared for larger emergency situations. But he did not item those improvements, and Mahmood told TechCrunch his agency has not received a promised follow-up.  

Cooper besides said Waymo would see leveraging partnerships for illustration nan 1 it has pinch DoorDash, which involves gig workers closing robotaxi doors that were near open, to move vehicles.  

How that would disagree from nan existing roadside assistance unit Waymo uses is not clear. But metropolis officials kept repeating nan aforesaid message. “Our first responders should not beryllium AAA,” territory supervisor Alan Wong said. 

This article was primitively published March 25, 2026 astatine 9:30 a.m. PT.