Waymo’s robotaxis can drive city streets without a human at the wheel, but they can still stop over basic issues that need a person to resolve, the Washington Post reports. That support layer, remote staff and local contractors, is part of how the service stays running.
The same weakness shows up in minor hiccups and citywide disruptions. A door that is not fully latched can keep a vehicle from moving. During a major power outage, so many vehicles may ask for guidance that some end up waiting in place long enough to block traffic. The car does the driving, but human help does the recovery.
Small failures can strand a car
Some stoppages are simple and hard to fully prevent. Passengers may leave a door not quite shut, or a seat belt can get caught in the rear door. The vehicle can treat that as unsafe and refuse to continue until the problem is cleared. There are also battery-related recoveries, though rare says Waymo.
Waymo routes help through an app called Honk, described as an on-demand dispatch system for towing and related assistance. Reported pay rates include $20 or more for closing a door, about $22 to $24 in some cases, and roughly $60 to $80 for a tow. Operators cited in the report said those numbers do not always cover fuel, time, and labor, especially when it takes extra time just to find the stalled vehicle.
What to watch next
The near-term question is whether Waymo can reduce how often it needs intervention as it expands to more cities next year. Each rescue is an operational cost, and when the failures cluster, they become a public problem fast.
Waymo says door issues are not too common and that it’s working on improving pickups and departures, including rider education. It also says it has redundant GPS tracking after towing operators raised concerns about imprecise location information.
Hardware changes may cut some of the simplest problems. Waymo is testing next-generation vehicles built with Zeekr that use sliding doors designed to open and close automatically. The bigger test is preventing remote-support queues from piling up during major disruptions, because that is when a cautious pause turns into a traffic jam.
