Waymo must pay people $22 to close blocked Robotaxi doors

In the Press release 2016 announcing Waymo as “Google’s self-driving car project,” CEO John Krafcik wrote that “self-driving technology could be useful in ways the world has not yet imagined, creating many new types of products, jobs, and services.”

Nine years later, Waymo vehicles are on the roads, and while they obviously don’t create jobs for drivers, that press release was right about one thing: I never imagined that closing a car door for $22 would be a legitimate job, but now it is.

A History of the Washington Post On Thursday, he’s looking at tow truck operators who use an app called Honk to get paid for providing services to Waymo. Evangelica Cuevas, owner of a towing company, describes a rather bleak situation for her and her drivers: She was offered “$22 to $24” to close the Waymo’s doors, and “$60 to $80” to tow them, perhaps because one of them ran out of juice while looking for a charger.

Georgios Petropoulos, a data scientist at the University of Southern California, told the Post: “Humans must interact with automated systems to ensure the service is delivered efficiently and safely. »

And as the Post’s Lisa Bonos says: “The door-closing and towing missions given to Marenco and others in Los Angeles are examples of how, as automation advances, it can create new work for the humans pressed into service to fill its gaps.” »

Overall, it’s a worrying vision for the future of work.