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DoorDash drivers are getting paid for a new side hustle: closing Waymo doors.
As 404Media reports, Waymo is currently paying DoorDash drivers to shut car doors that are left open by existing riders. This is important because the vehicles will not move unless the doors are fully closed, resulting in lost revenue for Waymo and traffic delays for other commuters.
Waymo’s partnership with DoorDash is currently underway in Atlanta. “In the rare event a vehicle door is left ajar, preventing the car from departing, nearby Dashers are notified, allowing Waymo to get its vehicles back on the road quickly,” the two companies said in a joint statement.
The confirmation comes after Dashers shared screenshots of Waymo requests on social media. For one gig, a Dasher was offered $6.25 to drive 0.7 miles to the car’s location. After Waymo confirmed the door had been closed, the Dasher got an additional $5.
This isn’t the first time Waymo has paid humans to close doors. In December, the company reportedly partnered with the Honk app in Los Angeles to shut Waymo doors or tow the AVs away if their batteries ran out after sitting idle. According to a Honk user, a tow job offered between $60 and $80, while shutting doors or other simple fixes got them $22 to $24.
These developments come as Waymo targets 1 million rides per week by the end of this year. It currently does 400,000 a week across six cities: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s also being tested in over a dozen other cities, including New York and London.