There's nobody in the driver's seat.That used to be someone's job.
Every trip a robotaxi takes used to be a fare a human driver earned. That fare got spent close to home: on rent, at the grocery store, at the mechanic down the street, at the diner after a late shift. When the car drives itself, the money pays off the vehicle, then leaves town for a tech giant's books and a billionaire's net worth. It drains out of a city one ride at a time, which is why it's so easy to miss.
I'm about to book oneWaiting on your ride? Read this first.
Your car is a few minutes out. Here's what that trip does to the people who used to drive it.
Drivers earn less, even when they keep working
Robot fleets add cars at every hour, so surge pricing drops and human drivers sit longer between fares. That waiting time is unpaid.
The best shifts go first
Bar close and airport runs paid drivers the most. Cars that never get tired are taking a growing share of exactly those trips.
The money leaves town
A driver spends fares on rent, groceries, gas and the mechanic down the street. A robotaxi fare goes to paying off the vehicle and to the operator's revenue.
The new jobs aren't built for them
Remote monitoring and depot maintenance take different training. There are far fewer of those jobs than there were driving gigs.
Same fare, two very different trips for the money
Rideshare pay mostly gets spent close to home. Researchers at regional policy institutes point out that when a trip moves to an autonomous car, that money stops circulating in your city.
A person drives you
- Rent in your city
- Groceries from the store on the corner
- Gas and an oil change at a local shop
- Whatever's left goes home to a family
Nobody drives you
- Pays down an expensive car and its sensors
- Becomes revenue for a tech giant somewhere else, and the billionaires at the top of it
What the researchers actually found
Adoption is slow, but low-barrier gig driving wears away over time. The new roles need technical training, so displaced drivers don't step into them one for one.
City ride-hail is more exposed than long-haul trucking, because dense, pre-mapped downtowns are where robotaxis work best. Immigrants and part-timers who drive as a safety net take the hardest hit.
In 2017, about 3.9 million U.S. workers drove for a living, and more than 9.5 million across 329 occupations stood to see their work changed by self-driving and other digital technology. Riders get cheaper and safer trips while lower-income drivers absorb the cost.
When safety drivers are pulled from the car, that job disappears along with some of the support work around it. No one has published a path to replacement work.
Most labor economists land in the same place. In cities where robotaxis run, they replace human ride-hail work instead of adding to it, and they push drivers' hourly pay down.
The other side, printed fair
We read the pro-robotaxi research too. Here's their best case.
New jobs get created
Engineering, mapping, remote operations, charging and vehicle servicing all need people. The same economists note those jobs are far fewer and ask for different qualifications.
More people can get around
Cheaper rides help people who can't drive. Supporters argue that extra mobility creates jobs outside transportation.
Safer streets
Backers expect fewer crashes once fatigue and distraction are out of the picture.
Some of those gains are real. The bill still lands on drivers who never got a vote.