Meet three of our Remote Drivers behind the wheels of Vay’s driverless car-rental service: Angelo, Dylan, and Tania.
Vay’s Remote Drivers: Who are we? What are our roles?
Tania and Angelo: We’re level 3 Remote Drivers, which means we’re certified commercial drivers.
Dylan: I am a level 3 Remote Driver and Team Lead. I help out with the fleets, customer service, and ensuring other teams are informed about our operations.
What has attracted you to become a Remote Driver?
Angelo: I love driving, and I’ve always wanted a driving job. However, I come from a different background, as I used to work a front desk hotel job.
Dylan: The newness of it all attracted me.
Tania: I was attracted to it because of the technology. I felt like it was the future, and I wanted to be a part of this new era.
What are the main differences between being a Remote Driver and a traditional taxi driver?
Dylan: There’s a whole different set of standards that we have to drive by, and the emphasis is on safety. For that reason, we learn to adopt a defensive driving style.
Angelo: Adapting to a 25 mph speed limit differs from conventional driving. Normally, you can speed up to change lanes or accelerate if needed, but in a remotely driven car, you cannot do those things.
Tania: You’re in the office driving a vehicle remotely; you don’t have to actually drive anywhere.
What does a typical day look like for a Remote Driver or Team Lead?
Dylan and Tania: There’s no typical day. We learn to be very adaptable to our environment and make many on-the-fly decisions.
There is some overlap between the morning and night shifts. So, we walk in and ask colleagues from the previous shift, “What’s going on today? What happened yesterday?”. During this time, we share all relevant information from the previous shift to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the situation.
We start the week at full speed, and on weekends, we break our own records.
How do shifts work, and how flexible are they?
Angelo: We have set schedules, but help each other if a Remote Driver goes on vacation or needs a day off. This makes planning our personal lives easier. We can also highlight our schedule preferences.
How does the Remote Driving technology actually work, and what’s your role in it?
Dylan: The best way we can explain to people is that we are a driverless car-rental company. We deliver cars to users who request them, and people drive them, just like a traditional car rental service. For Remote Drivers, it’s like sitting in a giant arcade machine, but everything around us is real. Our Remote Driving Stations include real automotive-grade wheels, pedals, and other components.
What kind of training or simulation do Remote Drivers go through?
All : We undergo very extensive training, which includes driving many kilometers. We start driving remotely in small areas – like doing laps in the Arts District – then we widen the areas as we progress in the training.
When we first start off, there’s a Safety Driver in the car to rely on in case we make a mistake. As you build your skills and confidence, the safety operator moves to the passenger seat, only to be used as a last resort. In the last part of the training, nobody is in the car – just like in our commercial service.
Safety is always top-of-mind for us, and we can move forward only when we’re ready and confident in our skills.
How do you teleport to conduct multiple rides back to back?
Tania: We deliver a vehicle, hand it over to the customer, and then we accept another ride on a secondary screen. We wait a few minutes for the remote service to connect to the other car, and then we can start a second ride.
How does this job impact real users and cities?
Dylan: Vay’s service is very accessible, as you can rent a car for 5 minutes or five hours. This gives people a lot of freedom.
Tania and Angelo: There’s a lot of people who prefer not owning a vehicle. They like Vay because it offers the same privacy and flexibility of owning a car, without having to maintain it or pay for insurance.
What kind of team do you work with?
Angelo: Our team is filled with so many different personalities. We have a morning and a night team, but we all work together towards the same goal.
Dylan: We all engage in the same activities for the most part, so we understand each other’s challenges and support one another. Additionally, everybody has individual responsibilities.
What’s the most challenging part of the job?
Tania and Dylan: There are many construction sites in Las Vegas, which may require extra effort. Driving more defensively than other drivers on the road can also be challenging, as others might sometimes be impatient. However, during training, we learn to respect our guidelines under all circumstances.
What’s the most rewarding part of the job?
Angelo: The higher a trip count gets and the more we can break records, the more exciting it is. Seeing the numbers go up is very rewarding. Going from 15 to 75 trips per day has been such an awesome journey!
Dylan: It is amazing to see the growth we’ve had. When we started, we only had Remote Driving Stations in one small room, and now we have two full rooms – this happened in just over a year!
Tania: I enjoy my coworkers! I like learning about technology, too, but the highlight of my day is just coming to work and spending the day with my team.