The robots are calling in humans for help, says The Wall Street Journal. Companies may be plowing billions of dollars into automation in delivery operations, but true autonomy in the sector may be years away, if it ever arrives.

Delivery robots instead may be managed by operators in remote locations for the foreseeable future.

Executives say they are focused on increasing the number of machines each human oversees. Serve Robotics, for instance, has one supervisor in a control room for every four of its food-delivery robots on the streets and hopes to get that up to one person handling hundreds or more robots.

The hurdle is what company co-founder Ali Kashani calls “the oddness of reality,” with disarray and movement in streets and warehouses challenging robots. 

Forklifts are among the vehicles leading advances, as technology increasingly allows drivers to operate them from hundreds of miles away.