Auto Industry Trends: Putting a human touch on autonomous vehicles

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Many automakers say it's inevitable that self-driving cars will soon play a major role in transportation. But challenges remain, including that final one-percent of situations where people just aren't comfortable in fully autonomous mode. CGTN's Mark Niu shows us how the startup Phantom Auto is using a hi-tech human solution in hopes of creating the safest ride.

I'm going for a ride with the founders of Phantom Auto.

"Welcome everybody my name is Ben. I will be your remote driver for this drive."

Mark Niu "So, he can control everything."

SHAI MAGZIMOF FOUNDER & CEO, PHANTOM AUTO "Yeah everything. The gear, turn signals, I mean whatever he needs to drive."

ELLIOT KATZ CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, PHANTOM AUTO "Ben can see virtually 360 degrees around the car. So, actually he has much better range of vision than a human driver sitting in the driver's seat."

Ben, our driver, is back at Phantom Auto's Silicon Valley headquarters, sitting in what looks like a video game setup.

In fact, the company's CEO also founded a social gaming company.

SHAI MAGZIMOF FOUNDER & CEO, PHANTOM AUTO "I was sitting in the gaming, racing car with a VR headset. I felt like I'm driving a real car. What is there's no difference here. I'm looking right and looking left. I see the world. Then, I was like what If you could do this for the autonomous system."

Industry people loved the idea of remote-control as a backup for self-driving cars, but also thought Shai was crazy for thinking he could drive over a cellular network.

Mark Niu "You lose the internet for anything it's not that big of a deal. I lose it here, am I gonna crashing into another car."

Elliot Katz, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, Phantom Auto: "Imagine if you were walking down the street and you had Verizon as your cell phone service, and your phone was smart enough to realize Verizon is about to drop, so I should switch over to Sprint."

Phantom Auto bonds multiple cell networks at the same time. Through Artificial intelligence, it predicts when to jump to the best ones. In the event of a complete cellular outage, AI also knows to stop the car and signal for help. I didn't notice any delays in control on my ride. But, with self-driving vehicles on the horizon, why re-introduce people at the wheel

Shai Magzimof, Founder; CEO, Phantom Auto: "Check this out, this is very special, look what's going on here, this is not an autonomous vehicle, there is no way it could do what we are experiencing."

In this situation, the car is creeping out slowly into traffic to make a right turn.

Shai says there are still to many situations self-driving cars can't handle-when to creep slowly into traffic, when to break the rules or understand emergency situations like this a road worker not clearly indicating what's going on.

MARK NIU MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA It's no secret that the autonomous driving industry could put thousands and perhaps millions of people out of work. But Phantom Auto could actually bring some of those jobs back. Their idea is to build actual control centers where professional drivers will actually man these wheels.

So far, the farthest Phantom has remotely controlled a car is between Silicon Valley and Las Vegas-roughly 800 kilometers.

The company plans to test its control center can reach across an ocean - all the way from Silicon Valley to Israel - in the belief that passengers around the world will feel most comfortable in a self-driving car when there's still a human touch. Mark Niu, CGTN Mountain View, California.