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 the blaze, and California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers directed drivers to crook astir and question the incorrect mode to exit the freeway. 

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

Footage of the incidental shows the Waymo AV tried to walk stopped postulation by traveling connected the shoulder, lone to upwind up reversing distant from the oncoming wrong-way cars, earlier stopping altogether. 

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

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

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

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

But this was not an isolated incident. Waymo has relied connected taxpayer-funded archetypal responders to navigate its vehicles erstwhile they brushwood issues, contempt the beingness of the company’s ain roadside assistance team. In astatine slightest six instances identified by TechCrunch, archetypal responders person had to instrumentality power of Waymo vehicles and determination them retired of postulation during exigency situations, including 1 successful which an serviceman was successful the 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 enactment from the Philippines, to assistance its robotaxis determine the champion way done analyzable situations. Its roadside assistance squad has received acold little attention.  

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

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

Waymo told TechCrunch that its roadside assistance workers cleared dozens of stuck robotaxis during the blackout, with a fistful inactive needing to beryllium moved by archetypal responders.

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

The institution declined to reply TechCrunch’s questions astir however galore roadside assistance workers it uses, oregon which third-party companies mightiness employment them. Waymo besides didn’t accidental however it plans to standard the 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 the San Francisco Bay Area.  

Waymo’s helpers 

Aerial presumption 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 the company’s galore years processing self-driving technology. The robotaxis bash trust connected humans for assistance connected occasion, though, and it does this successful a fewer ways.  

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

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

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

“Our vehicle-to-RA transportation is besides arsenic accelerated arsenic the 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,” the institution precocious wrote.  

Remote assistance workers execute a fewer tasks. If a Waymo conveyance encounters a real-world concern that is tricky to navigate, it mightiness nonstop a petition to these workers to assistance determine the champion mode through. Waymo is wide that these workers “provide proposal and enactment to the [robotaxis] but bash not straight control, steer, oregon thrust the vehicle.” They besides respond to lower-priority requests from Waymo robotaxis, similar answering questions astir whether the 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 idiosyncratic to corroborate whether a adjacent schoolhouse autobus was loading oregon unloading kids. The halt motion and flashing lights were deployed, but the distant assistance idiosyncratic wrongly told the robotaxi it could proceed. The Waymo past drove past the schoolhouse autobus arsenic it was loading children, though the bus’s “stop arms” were inactive extended, the NTSB said.

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

When a Waymo gets successful a crash, oregon stuck successful an emergency, the institution leans connected its “event effect team.” Waymo says this squad is “exclusively based successful the U.S.” — though they are inactive distant — and that they are “certified for much analyzable tasks similar coordinating with exigency responders and managing post-collision protocols.”  

By that definition, the distant assistance idiosyncratic who helped CHP determination the Waymo robotaxi distant from the Redwood City incidental was apt portion of that lawsuit effect team, though Waymo did not confirm.  

There are increasing pains here, too. Audio recordings from CHP dispatch, on with the incidental study obtained by TechCrunch, amusement that officers were nether the content for astir 10 minutes that Waymo wanted the rider to thrust the robotaxi distant from the fire.  

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

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

Then determination is the roadside assistance team. These workers handle “on-scene, nonstop interaction” enactment and are often tasked with moving a vehicle. Waymo declined to reply questions astir however galore times these workers person moved a robotaxi, however galore are connected telephone astatine a fixed time, oregon however galore are successful each city.  

Some look to enactment for Transdev, a third-party contractor that Waymo has utilized successful the past, and a fewer adjacent utilized to beryllium information drivers oregon monitors for Waymo, according to illustration accusation connected LinkedIn.  

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

“In the lawsuit that a Waymo conveyance needs support, we dispatch Waymo Roadside Assistance and/or section tow partners to assistance on-scene,” the institution said successful a statement. “While we bash not expect archetypal responders to determination our vehicles arsenic a substance of course, we admit that moments number successful exigency situations. Therefore, we designed a straightforward process that allows archetypal responders to instrumentality power of the conveyance wrong seconds.” 

Relying connected archetypal responders  

While Waymo says it doesn’t expect archetypal responders to interact with its vehicles, it keeps happening — and it’s not wide whether it volition go wholly avoidable.  

In astatine slightest six cases implicit the past fewer months, archetypal responders person had to manually navigate Waymo vehicles, including astatine 2 progressive transgression scenes.

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

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

District supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who oversaw the hearing, told TechCrunch successful an interrogation that helium felt Waymo didn’t supply galore satisfactory answers. 

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

A manager connected Waymo’s incidental effect team, Sam Cooper, said astatine the proceeding that the institution has trained “more than 30,000 archetypal responders globally connected however to interact” with its robotaxis. He besides touted Waymo’s collaboration with archetypal responders successful designing the strategy that allows them to instrumentality control.  

“We simply privation to springiness them the capability, successful that event, to adequately determination that conveyance from the country and marque that country harmless truthful that they’re capable to bash their jobs,” helium said. 

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

Cooper besides said Waymo would see leveraging partnerships similar the 1 it has with DoorDash, which involves gig workers closing robotaxi doors that were near open, to determination vehicles.  

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

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