Phantom Auto uses humans to remotely control self-driving cars in a pickle

Self-driving cars might not respond perfectly in every driving situation, which could be deadly, as passengers aren’t likely to be paying attention or able to take over in time. So Phantom Auto has come up with a solution. When the situation gets really tough for a self-driving car, Phantom Auto switches the control to a remote human driver, who can use video game equipment to safely control the vehicle.

Shai Magzimof, CEO and cofounder of the Mountain View, California startup, said in an interview with VentureBeat that he was inspired by playing racing video games. After looking into programming artificial intelligence for self-driving cars, he concluded it would be really hard to achieve perfection. And any amount of error could be disastrous for passengers.