Hyperdrive

Google Backs Startup Working on Remote-Controlled Driverless Cars

Vehicle `teleoperations’ by Scotty Labs get funding from Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund

Waymo self-driving vehicles line up to re-enter the company's facility after morning test drives in Chandler, Ariz., Oct. 21, 2017.Photographer: David Walter Banks/The New York Times/Redux

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By Mark Bergen

March 28, 2018 at 10:30 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is getting into self-driving cars in a new way.

Gradient Ventures, an early-stage venture fund within Google, is leading a $6 million investment in a new company that’s building software to let humans control cars remotely. Scotty Labs, a nine-person startup, works on “teleoperations,” an emerging slice of the autonomous vehicle business that may grow more critical as the field faces closer scrutiny.