Is this propaganda move to counter to the recent NYT article (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/03/technology/zoox-self-driving-cars-remote-control.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/03/technology/zo...</a>) revealing how much human assistance "self-driving" cars require?<p>> Inside companies like Zoox, this kind of human assistance is taken for granted. Outside such companies, few realize that autonomous vehicles are not completely autonomous.<p>> For years, companies avoided mentioning the remote assistance provided to their self-driving cars. The illusion of complete autonomy helped to draw attention to their technology and encourage venture capitalists to invest the billions of dollars needed to build increasingly effective autonomous vehicles.<p>> “There is a ‘Wizard of Oz’ flavor to this,” said Gary Marcus, an entrepreneur and a professor emeritus of psychology and neural science at New York University who specializes in A.I. and autonomous machines.<p>> ...<p>> When regulators last year ordered Cruise to shut down its fleet of 400 robot taxis in San Francisco after a woman was dragged under one of its driverless vehicles, the cars were supported by about 1.5 workers per vehicle, including remote assistance staff, according to two people familiar with the company’s operations. Those workers intervened to assist the vehicles every two and a half to five miles, the people said.