[super-serial]

I think a lot of people in this thread are underestimating the possibility of safety drivers going remote and how that could be a solution to these edge cases.

When making decisions or coming across strange situations the AI has a confidence level, and when that falls below a threshold it can notify a remote person to potentially handle the situation. Right now Waymo has problems merging on a freeway with asshole drivers... but what's the big deal? It's maybe 1 minute out of a 30 minute drive.

If you only need a human operator to take over the vehicle 2 minutes out of every hour of autonomous travel, then you could probably get by with 10 remote operators monitoring a fleet of 200 vehicles. That could translate into way better profit margins than any current ride-share service.

[aedron]

Now I'm imagining a guy whose job is to sit all day in a simulator vehicle, 'teleporting' from one stranded Waymo to the next and taking it around school buses and manhole covers, parallel parking, etc.

I kind of think that is viable. Replace thirty regular drivers with one. That kind of model doesn't look too far off.

[cheald]

We already do it with military UAVs. Assist-by-wire for vehicles seems like it's not too far-fetched.

[masonic]

When you hit a window when you need the 11th human, which you don't have online, what then? The vehicle facing that need just fails?