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Waymo taps DoorDash drivers to close robotaxi doors
Alphabet’s Waymo is testing a pilot program in Atlanta that involves DoorDash drivers closing vehicle doors left open on its autonomous robotaxis.
The initiative, launched earlier this year, notifies nearby DoorDash drivers to shut open doors, allowing Waymo vehicles to resume their routes.
A recent example showed a driver receiving a US$11.25 offer via the DoorDash app for this task, with no pickup or delivery required.
The companies confirmed the partnership aims to facilitate vehicle operation but declined to specify if Waymo is paying for these jobs.
This collaboration reflects a broader trend of gig economy firms supporting autonomous vehicle fleets, which still depend on human labor for tasks like maintenance and depot operations.
🔗 Source: Bloomberg
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Waymo’s door problem ties back to fast growth
- On-demand help to close doors in Atlanta exposes a hurdle as the service moves into new cities 1.
- Most of the fleet uses retrofitted Jaguar I-PACE SUVs, built without features such as self-closing doors for ride-hailing use 2.
- Gig workers fill the gap while the hardware lags.
- The company says later vehicle platforms will close doors automatically, ending this type of manual assist 1.
Splitting up the driver role changes AV costs
- Autonomous vehicle economics hinge on cutting the paid driver from each trip.
- Instead, labor gets split into smaller, on-call errands tied to each ride.
- Support also happens offsite through remote assistance, where human agents add context for the autonomous driving system 3.
- Those human-in-the-loop expenses stack up while the service costs more on average than an Uber or Lyft ride, which clouds the route to profitability 4.
Recent Waymo developments
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