In August of last year, a blaze swept across 10 acres of grassland flanking California’s I-280 close to Redwood City. As firefighters battled the fire, traffic came to a standstill, and officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) instructed drivers to turn around and take the freeway exit in the opposite direction. 

Among those drivers was a new hurdle: a Waymo robotaxi.  

Video of the event captures the Waymo AV attempting to navigate around stalled vehicles by driving on the shoulder, ultimately having to reverse from the approaching wrong-way traffic before coming to a complete stop. 

Despite intervention from the company’s remote assistance team, the robotaxi remained stationary. Consequently, Waymo resorted to a solution that has proven effective before and dialed 911. 

“Highway patrol turned everyone around, but regrettably our vehicle can’t turn around,” one of Waymo’s remote assistance agents told a local 911 dispatcher, as per a recording acquired by TechCrunch through a public records request. The agent requested that officers onsite transport the robotaxi away and arrange for the passenger’s transport. 

Approximately 30 minutes post-call to 911, a CHP officer entered the vehicle and transported the robotaxi to a park-and-ride lot adjacent to the highway, according to a CHP incident report obtained by TechCrunch. Subsequently, one of Waymo’s “roadside assistance” personnel drove it from that location, the company conveyed to TechCrunch. 

The Redwood City occurrence could be regarded as an atypical event, a somewhat embarrassing yet unavoidable hiccup in Waymo’s swiftly growing robotaxi service network.

However, this was not a standalone incident. Waymo has depended on taxpayer-supported first responders to maneuver its vehicles when complications arise, even with its own roadside assistance team in place. In at least six cases identified by TechCrunch, first responders were required to take control of Waymo vehicles and relocate them from traffic during emergencies, including one situation where an officer was engaged in responding to a mass shooting.

Recently, Waymo has faced backlash from lawmakers regarding its employment of remote assistance staff, including some who work from the Philippines, to assist its robotaxis in determining the most suitable route through complicated circumstances. The roadside assistance team has garnered far less attention.  

Representatives from the company did not mention the roadside assistance team during a contentious March 2 hearing in San Francisco concerning the behavior of Waymo’s robotaxis that had become immobilized during a significant power outage in December. At the gathering, city officials voiced concerns that the immobilized autonomous vehicles hindered or redirected first responders from their primary duties.

“What has begun to occur is that our public safety officers and responders are having to physically move [Waymos],” Mary Ellen Carroll, the executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management, stated at the hearing. “In a sense, they’re transforming into a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we don’t believe is sustainable.” 

Waymo informed TechCrunch that its roadside assistance personnel managed to clear numerous immobilized robotaxis during the blackout, with some still requiring to be transported by first responders.

“Waymo Roadside Assistance is a specialized team that provides additional on-the-ground support to our fleet,” the company stated in an email to TechCrunch. “Waymo’s standards for roadside response and service quality emphasize minimizing potential impacts on the community.” 

The company did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiries regarding the number of roadside assistance employees it has or which third-party entities might employ them. Waymo also did not clarify how it intends to scale this team as it strives to launch in approximately 20 additional cities this year, broadening its reach beyond existing markets of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, and the San Francisco Bay Area.  

Waymo’s helpers 

Waymo’s robotaxis offer over 400,000 paid rides weekly, underscoring the company’s extensive years of research in self-driving technology. Nevertheless, these robotaxis occasionally depend on human intervention, and they do so in various ways.  

The robotaxis often require guidance in complicated scenarios, especially since — as Waymo asserts — the company aims to be exceedingly careful as it expands its service.  

This guidance is provided to Waymo’s robotaxis by the “remote assistance” personnel. At any moment, about 70 of these workers are overseeing Waymo’s fleet of around 3,000 vehicles, as stated by the company. Half of these personnel are located in the U.S., while the other half are situated in the Philippines.

These specifics, which were disclosed in a letter to Congress in February, prompted critical feedback for Waymo regarding concerns over safety and security. The company has defended its use of remote assistance workers, claiming they are well-qualified and asserting that there is no significant delay caused by their geographical distance, whether they are in Arizona, Michigan, or the Philippines.  

“Our vehicle-to-RA connection is as quick as the blink of an eye. Average one-way latency is around 150 milliseconds for U.S.-based operations centers and 250 milliseconds for RAs located abroad,” the company recently conveyed.  

Remote assistance workers carry out a variety of tasks. If a Waymo vehicle encounters a challenging real-world scenario, it might issue a request to these employees to help determine the best route forward. Waymo clarifies that these workers “provide advice and support to the [robotaxis] but do not directly control, steer, or drive the vehicle.” They additionally address lesser priority inquiries from Waymo robotaxis, such as confirming if the car’s interior is clean.

However, this system isn’t without flaws.  

The National Transportation Safety Board recently disclosed that in January, a Waymo in Austin sought confirmation from a remote assistance worker about whether a nearby school bus was in the process of loading or unloading children. Although the stop sign and flashing lights were activated, the remote assistance worker mistakenly instructed the robotaxi to proceed. Consequently, the Waymo drove past the school bus while it was loading children, even as the bus’s “stop arms” remained extended, the NTSB reported.

Waymo informed TechCrunch that it “regularly audits RA responses, including their accuracy. If an incident occurs, it will be promptly flagged for follow-up actions, ranging from additional coaching to complete decertification.”

In the event of a collision or an emergency situation, Waymo relies on its “event response team.” The company asserts that this team is “exclusively situated in the U.S.” — although they are still remote — and that they are “qualified for more intricate tasks such as coordinating with emergency responders and managing post-collision procedures.”  

By that definition, the remote assistance worker who aided CHP in relocating the Waymo robotaxi from the Redwood City incident was likely part of that event response team, although Waymo did not confirm this.  

There are also growing pains evident here. Audio records from CHP dispatch, along with the incident report procured by TechCrunch, reveal that officers believed for roughly 10 minutes that Waymo intended for the passenger to drive the robotaxi away from the blaze.  

It was only when the remote worker placed a second call to 911 that CHP understood an officer was required to drive it away from the situation. (Waymo opted not to respond to specific inquiries about this miscommunication. The company maintained that it never requests riders to take control of its vehicles.) 

Next is the roadside assistance team. These individuals manage “on-site, direct interaction” tasks and are frequently responsible for relocating a vehicle. Waymo refrained from addressing inquiries about how many times these workers have moved a robotaxi, how many are available on call at any given time, or how many are situated in each city.  

Some are believed to be employed by Transdev, a third-party contractor that Waymo has utilized previously, and a few even have backgrounds as safety drivers or monitors for Waymo, based on profile data on LinkedIn.  

The company also informed TechCrunch that it “requires local tow partners to sustain rapid response capabilities for urgent towing requests and strategically place support across our service locations.” 

“Should a Waymo vehicle require assistance, we dispatch Waymo Roadside Assistance and/or local tow partners to provide on-scene support,” the company stated in a statement. “While we don’t anticipate first responders to move our vehicles routinely, we acknowledge that timing is critical in emergencies. Therefore, we established a simple process that enables first responders to gain control of the vehicle within seconds.” 

Relying on first responders  

Although Waymo claims it doesn’t foresee first responders needing to engage with its vehicles, this continues to happen — and it remains uncertain if it will be entirely avoidable.  

In at least six instances over recent months, first responders have had to manually maneuver Waymo vehicles, including at two active crime scenes.

Earlier this month, a police officer in Austin had to reposition a Waymo to allow an ambulance access in response to a mass shooting incident. In February, a first responder in Atlanta was required to disengage a Waymo after it drove into an active crime scene, before a member of the company’s roadside assistance team “retrieved it,” according to the company. This week, a Nashville police officer had to manually drive a Waymo robotaxi away after it became stuck at an intersection. 

During the March 2 hearing in San Francisco, city officials persistently questioned Waymo about what actions it would take to reduce its reliance on first responders. Waymo did not mention its personnel dedicated to moving vehicles during the three-hour session.  

District supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who supervised the hearing, expressed to TechCrunch that he felt Waymo didn’t offer many satisfactory responses. 

“I kept asking: How are you going to take more responsibility to ensure that our first responders aren’t doing that?” he stated. “And we did not receive that answer during the hearing which we were seeking, that is: What measures will they implement to ensure they take more ownership of that roadside assistance aspect?” 

A manager from Waymo’s incident response team, Sam Cooper, indicated at the hearing that the company has instructed “over 30,000 first responders globally on how to interact” with its robotaxis. He also lauded Waymo’s partnership with first responders in the creation of the system that permits them to gain control.  

“We merely want to empower them, in that scenario, to effectively relocate that vehicle from the site and secure the area so they can perform their duties,” he articulated. 

Cooper stated that Waymo has made “enhancements to our surge staffing capabilities” to be better equipped for larger emergency situations. However, he did not elaborate on those improvements, and Mahmood informed TechCrunch that his office has not received a promised follow-up. 

Cooper also noted that Waymo would contemplate leveraging collaborations similar to its engagement with DoorDash, which involves gig workers shutting robotaxi doors that were left ajar, to relocate vehicles.  

How that would differ from the existing roadside assistance staff Waymo employs remains unclear. However, city officials reiterated the same sentiment. “Our first responders should not function as AAA,” district supervisor Alan Wong remarked. 

This article was originally published March 25, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. PT.