Understanding AI

Understanding AI

Waymo just revealed a crucial statistic for scaling its technology

At any moment, just 70 people oversee Waymo’s 3,000-vehicle fleet.

Timothy B. Lee's avatar
Timothy B. Lee
Feb 18, 2026
∙ Paid

Software on board driverless Waymo vehicles makes realtime driving decisions. But the vehicles have the ability to “phone home” and get assistance from humans if they encounter situations they don’t understand.

How often does this happen? Until this week, Waymo kept numbers like this confidential. But on Tuesday, Waymo provided an important clue, reveali…

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