At the beginning of the robotaxi rides, we do not yet know the mystery of the human helpers of Tesla

Self -driving vehicle developers Usually I don’t like to talk about “teleoperation”, when a human guide or guides remote robot cars. It may seem like a dirty secret. An autonomous vehicle should not work, well, independently?

But experts say that teleoperations are, at least right now, a critical part of any taxi robot service, including Tesla robotaxi. The technology, although impressive, is still under development and autonomous systems still need humans to guide them through less common and particularly sticky road situations. In addition, a rocky principle of safety engineering is that each system needs a backup, in a double way for new robotics involving EV to two tons that are driving on public roads.

Yet, a few days after the launch of Tesla of its long -awaited (and very delay) Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, the public does not yet know much about its teleoperation systems. Tesla has Published a work relating to teleoperations Where it states that the role will be responsible for the development of the application “that our remote operators use to interface with our cars and robots”, an application in which these operators will be “transported to the device world using an avant -garde VR system that allows them to perform remote complex and intricate tasks”.

Alarmingly, several government spokespersons – representing the city of Austin, the state of Texas and the best regulator of road safety in the United States – do not answer questions about Tesla’s teleoperations. In fact, Austin and the Texas transport department have directed all our questions about Tesla technology to the company itself. Tesla, who dissolved his public relations team in 2020, did not answer Wired questions.

Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the country’s road safety guard dog, he wrote A Letter to Tesla poses questions about, among other things, How or if Tesla has planned to use teleoperations. How will human staff expect to monitor, supervise or even intervene when your systems are traveling? The government asked the company to respond by June 19, which will be After The service is presumably launched on June 12, according to the reports of Bloomberg At the beginning of this month. NHTSA repeatedly would not have responded to Wired requests on what he knows of Tesla’s teleoperations.

THE Times of Los Angeles He reported that humans used teleoperations to manipulate the Optimus robot during a “Cybercab” debut event in Los Angeles and when Optimus showed his new hands a month later, capturing a tennis ball in mid -air, a company engineer recognized that humans used teleoperations in the same way. The company also has a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California with a driver behind the wheel. The state has much more severe rules than Texas e require A sort of “communication connection” between test vehicles and remote operators, therefore the company is likely to have a sort of system.

Although not shedding on how Tesla’s teleoperations work in the city, Austin Transportation and Public Works Cristal Corrales spokesman wrote in one and -mail: “The city works with AV [autonomous vehicle] The companies first and during distribution to obtain training for the first rescuers, establish expectations for ongoing communication and share information on infrastructures and events. “The spokesman for the Texas transport department, Laura Butterbrodt, said in a declaration and -mail:” The Texas law allows AV tests and operations on the roads of Texas as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road “.