An item not really addressed in the article is the line of communication between the remote "driver" and the "Robotaxi" and how it can be disrupted.
For any *normal* company, the stock price would freefall after something like this. The level of human oversight negates much of the cost advantage argument that has been put forth.
But Tesla is not normal as evidenced by it's sky high valuation. It is really more of a cult so I wouldn't count on it.
It does feel likely that Elon was just as insistent about not needing Waymo's remote support architecture as he was about not needing Waymo's full sensor suite.
His legal insight is questionable too. Reports from Austin show that remotely operated level 2 vehicles are an accident waiting to happen. And an army of liability lawyers are just waiting to feed off this.