Remote intervention for self-driving cars creates insurance risks

Takeaways:

• Extent of AVs use of remote assistance operators (RAOs) unknown 
• Litigation or insurance claims must consider RAOs actions
• AV-generated data can help price risk

Insurers are navigating tricky terrain when it comes to autonomous vehicles (AVs) and remote assistance operators (RAOs), or the people whose decisions inform how AVs drive.

AVs, being literally data-driven, provide a trove of intel that can inform insurance risk. But RAOs, who respond to communication from AVs to navigate tricky road conditions and other obstacles, make it harder to attribute liability.

Ultimately, a U.S. senator's investigation could not determine the extent of AV services' use of RAOs, since the operators do not directly control acceleration, braking, steering and operations. 

After Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) launched an inquiry into seven major AV companies in February, none answered how frequently RAOs intervene, or how long communication between AVs and RAOs takes. Markey's report also noted that Waymo, a California-based company, was the only one of the companies that hires RAOs who are based outside the U.S.

John Shetron

While RAOs do not directly pose insurance risks, and they are an operational safeguard, RAOs create legal complexities that may affect insurers, according to Patrick Schmid, chief insurance officer of the Insurance Information Institute, in an email to Digital Insurance. Motor vehicle liability frameworks can vary widely by jurisdiction, which can affect the structure of AV insurance and how claims are handled, Schmid added. 

RAOs are an issue in claims investigations, he explained. 

"If an incident occurs while a remote operator was actively advising the vehicle, questions around the quality of that guidance, response time, and whether the operator had adequate information could all surface in litigation," Schmid said. "That introduces a layer of professional liability that sits alongside, and sometimes in tension with, the underlying auto or product liability coverage."

With Waymo, involvement of foreign-based RAOs mean it's not just differences among U.S. states, but different countries' legal frameworks, he noted.

Multiple incidents of Waymo vehicles ignoring stopped school buses with their stop sign arms extended have occurred since the beginning of 2026. Separately, a Waymo vehicle struck a child in Santa Monica, California, and there are reports of Waymo and Tesla autonomous vehicles obstructing traffic and breaking traffic laws. 

These incidents have "led to some people asking questions about the extent of remote assistance," said Jeff Huebner, president of Mobilitas, a commercial auto insurer specializing in rideshare and delivery app services. "In other words, how many humans are backing up how many vehicles from a remote capacity perspective?"

These questions are part of the evolution of autonomous vehicle technology risks and coverage, echoing questions from a hundred years ago about the risk and coverage of motor vehicles, added Huebner, who is also executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer at CSAA Insurance Group, the parent company of Mobilitas.

"AVs in the U.S. generate multiple data factors focused on improving trip safety," Huebner said. "We use the data to provide accurate and segmented underwriting and pricing to our clients, providing incentives for strong risk management and safety efforts."

The data that autonomous vehicles collect helps increase accuracy of pricing their risk, Huebner explained. "When we and our clients are aligned as to what the risk is and what the cost is, that gives us the ability to focus on managing it. So then we can work to lower it," he said.

Data collected by autonomous vehicles can be used to improve safety, accountability and trust, according to the Responsible Technology Institute at the University of Oxford, which conducted its Responsible AV Data Project in 2021 and 2022. This collected data, including the AV's AI-based decision-making, can be used in legal investigations of vehicle accidents, according to RTI.