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AI might be coming for your job, but it’s also creating new ones—at least if closing a Waymo door for $20 a pop seems like a good gig to you.
According to reports by The Washington Post, Waymo is now paying people in Los Angeles $20 or more for “rescuing” its robotaxis by closing their doors. This is something the otherwise high-tech vehicles can’t do themselves, and something passengers can’t always be relied on to do consistently. Waymo uses Honk, a mobile app released in 2024 which has been called Uber for towing firms, currently available on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store.
Cesar Marenco, the owner of a small local towing firm, told the publication he completes up to three jobs a week for Waymo via the Honk app—sometimes hauling fully powered-down vehicles to hailing stations, and sometimes just performing simple tasks like closing doors. Marenco says he gets between $60 and $80 for a tow job, which doesn't include his fuel costs, and gets $22 to $24 for a simple fix.
“There’s always going to be human error when someone’s riding in a vehicle and there’s no one to tell them to close the door or put their seat belt on,” Marenco told the Post.
It’s unclear whether the unexpected opportunity will remain open for long. The Post reports that the next generation of Waymo taxis will feature sliding, minivan-style doors that can close automatically. Waymo spokeswoman Katherine Barna told the Post that door problems are “not too common” and it is “educating and informing our riders” to prevent it from happening.
This type of ad hoc human assistance has proved invaluable for Waymo in emergency situations. In a recent blog post, the company detailed how the power outage in San Francisco, which disabled numerous Waymo vehicles earlier this month, causing a large spike in demand for human assistance.
But some Waymo assistants have expressed concerns about the deals they’re being offered. Jesus Ajuiñiga, another manager at a local towing firm, said he was offered a fee lower than the usual $250 he would normally charge for recovering this type of all-wheel-drive vehicle. He also raised concerns about potential liability for damaging a Waymo vehicle, which can cost over $200,000 to produce, according to some robotics analysts.