However, a decade and a half after those first demo drives, Waymo has finally hit a point where the error rate is so low that it’s possible to pull the human safety monitor out of the car completely. Suddenly you have a new kind of post-labor business model that’s potentially much more valuable—an autonomous fleet that can run 24 hours a day with minimal labor costs and with perfectly consistent service and safe driving. This corresponds to the second bend in the graph.
They pulled the human safety monitor out of the car, but I think humans are still doing work remotely (each were monitoring 15-20 cars as of 2023 at Cruise). But that can still be consistent with minimal labor costs.
They pulled the human safety monitor out of the car, but I think humans are still doing work remotely (each were monitoring 15-20 cars as of 2023 at Cruise). But that can still be consistent with minimal labor costs.