Remote-controlled cars prepare us for our autonomous future
The road to fully autonomous vehicles is long and marred by technology challenges, from the cost of developing the technology and commercial expansion to public acceptance and safety concerns. And that is if people want to stop driving at all.
But there is something that can help this transition, that can bridge the gap between the autonomous believers and self-driving skeptics: remote-controlled vehicles.
And no, we’re not talking about toy cars, these are real remote-controlled cars for adults. In this piece, I’m going to explain how they work, what the commercial and technological implications are, and whether they can help us move towards an autonomous future.
What are remote controlled cars?
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Essentially, a remote-controlled car is a vehicle that can be driven by someone who is not physically in it.
Instead, the person driving the car is in a remote location, but sees the road just as if they were behind the wheel. In addition to on-road applications, remote-controlled vehicles are also used by the military in scenarios where removing the driver is the safest option.
How remote car sharing works
Picture this: you book a vehicle through an app, but instead of having to go find it, the car is driven to your door remotely by someone in a command center. As soon as you start driving, you take full control of the vehicle and – on your departure – the remote control resumes control and the car drives to the next customer.
How remote-controlled car-sharing can capture the public’s imagination
People don’t like change, especially if they’re used to the convenience of stepping out the door, hopping in their car. Who wants to walk a few blocks away to car sharing when it’s raining, or when you’re juggling shopping, kids, or luggage? That’s what remote-controlled car sharing offers over the more common smart rental.
As much as many would like us to move away from cars, the fact remains that, despite urban planners’ efforts to introduce micromobility programs and public transport infrastructure, the number of cars purchased in Europe is steadily increasing.
In Germany for example, statistics shows that in 2021 there were 580 cars per 1000 inhabitants. Ten years ago there were 517. The share of households with two cars also increased from 23.4% to 27%.
And if we look at the usefulness of these privately purchased cars, despite the love of driving, they are usually driven for an hour a day, if so, and then parked for the remaining 23 hours.
Car sharing offers an alternative to privately owned vehicles, reducing the need for households with one or more cars. It saves drivers money as there is no responsibility for annual registration, insurance premiums, repairs or charging costs.
Another great benefit is that drivers can try different cars based on their transportation needs for each trip. For example, if you need to transport a group, you can select a passenger car. Need to move something? A bus. What’s more, car sharing can provide a first taste of electric vehicle driving, a great litmus test for those traditionally concerned about range, and it also means fewer gas-guzzling vehicles on the road.
Drivers also gain insight into the actual costs of each journey, which can motivate them to opt for other forms of transport for shorter journeys.
There’s also a more prosaic reason: many people drive because they love driving and can’t imagine a future where they don’t get the chance to get behind the wheel, at least sometimes. Remote-controlled car sharing does not take away from this. Well, at least not yet.
Cities also benefit from these schemes, as they reduce the need for parking infrastructure such as garages, lots, and street zones.
The commercial opportunity for remote-controlled car sharing
Car sharing bridges the gap between car ownership and a future of on-demand, fully autonomous vehicles. And when you add remote control to the mix, things get interesting.
However, there is an important note to reiterate here. If you order a remote-controlled vehicle, you don’t get AI maneuvering the car. Instead, it’s a real human being.
The car is driven to you by a person who is stationed in a control room and sits at a console with a steering wheel and the appropriate pedals. They look at a screen that broadcasts a 360-degree view of the roads. Radar and audio sensors transmit data, such as traffic sounds and warning signals from emergency vehicles, to the remote driver’s headset. This happens in real time over 4G (and in some cities 5G).
According to co-founder Enn Laansoo Jr of Estonia’s remote caring sharing company, it all boils down to one thing Elmo: safety. No one is driving under the influence or speeding. There is also less risk of distraction as operators do nothing but drive. Compare this to a taxi driver who may “multitask with apps, look up addresses and make phone calls”.
And distraction is the enemy of reactivity. He explains the challenge of human latency: when you see something, it takes 800 milliseconds to react: “But if you’re checking a cell phone at that moment, it’s a second plus because you’re not focusing.”
I also spoke with Thomas von der Ohe, the co-founder and CEO of faded. He previously worked on Amazon’s Alexa and at the robotaxi startup Zoox. He shared that his six years in the Bay Area building self-driving cars taught him about the technical, regulatory and industry challenges to mainstream adoption of autonomous vehicles.
He sees the value in people who are still in the know. “We don’t have to solve edge cases, where you have to validate billions of miles to understand what can happen, because a human is always in control.” Vay is currently testing its remote-controlled vehicles in Berlin and plans to launch its service in Europe and the US next year.
If there’s one part of the world that’s at the forefront of remote-controlled car-sharing, it’s Eastern Europe.
Looking to Estonia for the future of mobility
Estonia is a country that has embraced the role of technology in mobility and operates as a testing ground for innovation. The country is the birthplace of Starship Technologiesmakers of autonomous delivery robots, ridesharing giant Boltand from Iseauto autonomous robo-shuttles.
In the case of remote-controlled vehicles, yes Elmo and Clevon teleoperating medium-sized vans.
According to Elmo’s Laansoo, carrying people at a distance started five years ago. The economy minister began to analyze the existing traffic rules and found that “the traffic law says the car must have a driver, but not where the driver must be”.
This was quickly seen as an opportunity – “from government level to startups and local citizens” – resulting in many market-ready solutions.
Elmo currently operates remote vehicles in Estonia. The fleet has made 20,000 trips, a number that Laanssoo says is fine for Estonia, but would need to match that number in cities in France and Germany to scale meaningfully. The company has generated interest in both countries, as well as Finland, Switzerland and the US.
As Estonia roars ahead, other companies are also trying to join the remote-controlled car-sharing industry. There is the above faded in Berlin, Empire Drive test a similar service called To retrieve on private property and sports stadiums in Milton Keynes, and Halo at Vegas.
One of the most interesting is the London-Maltese company Vibrating cattle, developers of small electric three-wheel autocycle vehicles (technically classified as motorcycles). The company recently showed a prototype at Slush in Helsinki and is currently looking at pilots in the UK and Malta.
Remote control applications also exist in the industry transport and logistics sector, with companies such as fernride (Germany) and Einride (Sweden) are investigating this.
An industry that is still in its infancy
But there are still unknowns given the infancy of remote-controlled car sharing. For example, Laansoo raised the challenge of remote control fatigue. Currently, there is not enough data to determine the optimal duration of a shift, the best seat, screen size and other infrastructure.
Then there’s the recruitment – what makes a good remote driver? Laansoo suggests it could be anyone from a “60-year-old truck driver or a virtual rally driver.” But there are so many questions about liability, making sure drivers aren’t distracted or intoxicated at a distance, that need to be validated.
In addition, the remote nature of the work can lead to conflict in local towns as providers move their operations abroad, so this needs to be factored into licensing.
With the regulations already in place, Estonia and Germany are poised to be the first countries to fully roll out the technology. Elmo is already discussing licensing its technology to other rideshare operators in Europe.
But if we see remote-controlled cars as a springboard to full automotive automation, how exactly does one lead to the other? It’s not entirely clear. Will it be an autonomous driving vehicle that comes to you, which you then take over the wheel? Laansson questions the financial merit, suggesting that “it only really makes sense in a taxi where the driver’s salary is 50% of all costs.”
In comparison, Von der Ohe sees his company’s product offerings scale to greater automation, leveraging the data generated by fleets over time.
The fact remains that we are still Level 4 in commercial vehicle automation. Even Starship, with their small robot delivery fleets, still needs remote safety drivers in the background, just like autonomous robot vehicles on the road today.
The reality is that autonomous vehicles are complex and expensive, and we need fewer cars on the road. In addition, everything that exists must complement and coexist with public transport, micromobility, cars, and e-bikes. And in the future eVTOLs and maybe even hyperloops.
At some point there will be autonomous vehicles, but it is still unclear when. But what remote-controlled vehicles can do is bridge this gap, get people used to the idea of such vehicles and make sure they work smoothly with other modes of transportation.
The only thing we know for sure is that the future is one of human-machine collaboration – and we can’t wait to see it in action.
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