You spent years hearing that robots would take your job. Now you can get paid to walk up to a robot, tap its door, and send it back to work. In the age of driverless cars, you are the emergency thumbs that keep the future from timing out on the curb. The gig economy has discovered its purest form: you close a car door, you get cash.
Meet the robotaxi that needs a babysitter
Your new side hustle starts with a very confused Jaguar SUV. In Los Angeles, one such Jaguar, part of Waymo’s autonomous fleet, sat frozen at a curb while its passenger had already wandered off, leaving the door slightly ajar. A passerby named Don Adkins heard a disembodied voice from the stranded vehicle politely begging for help, a scene that exposed what Adkins later described as an Achilles’ heel of the sleek robotaxis that now ferry riders in Los Angeles and San Franc, where the cars can navigate traffic but apparently cannot nudge a misaligned door into place on their own, as detailed in one account of Adkins and that Achilles moment.
Because riders and passersby can be unreliable, Waymo has quietly built a backup plan that involves you, your hands, and about thirty seconds of effort. The company now pays people in Los Angeles $20 or more to respond when one of its cars gets stuck with a door that will not quite latch, a job that can be triggered by a notification and finished in less time than it takes to microwave leftovers, according to reporting on how Waymo pays workers in Los Angeles.
The $20–$24 tap that keeps the future moving
If you answer the call, the pay is oddly specific and surprisingly decent for a task your toddler could perform. Waymo pays workers $22 to close doors on stranded robotaxis, a rate that arrives through an app and turns you into a kind of on-demand pit crew for vehicles that can otherwise steer, brake, and merge without human help, a setup described in detail in coverage of how Waymo pays workers $22 to close doors. In some cases, that tap on the door is worth even more, with reports of people earning $24 for the same quick fix, turning a short walk to a curb into the kind of micro-gig that makes food delivery look like a long-term commitment.
The money is not just a rumor passed around on group chats of side-hustle enthusiasts. One breakdown of the trend notes that a University of Southern California data scientist named Georgios Petropoulos looked at this setup and summed it up bluntly, saying that humans are needed to intervene when the technology fails, a reminder that the system still leans heavily on people even as it tries to automate them away, as explained in an analysis quoting University of Southern California researcher Georgios Petropoulos.
“Captain of the ship,” meet the guy closing the hatch
On paper, the robotaxi is supposed to be the captain here, gliding through city streets with the calm authority of a seasoned chauffeur. In practice, the job of making sure the doors are actually closed has fallen to you and your fellow gig workers, even as industry veterans try to frame it as part of a broader human safety net. Keith Chen, who was head of economics at Uber and has watched automation reshape transportation, has been quoted saying that making the sure the doors are closed is part of being the captain of the ship, a line that lands differently when you realize the captain is now a stranger with a smartphone jogging up to a stalled car, as described in reporting that highlights Keith Chen and that “captain of the ship” idea.
The irony is that this is not the grand robot revolution you were promised, it is closer to being a valet for a very picky automatic sliding door. Nine years after early hype about self-driving cars eliminating driving jobs, Waymo vehicles are indeed on the roads, and while they obviously do not create jobs for drivers, that earlier promise of frictionless autonomy has instead spawned a niche where people earn money towing Waymo cars or closing their doors while the vehicles sit helplessly looking for a charger, a twist captured in coverage of how Waymo has to pay people while looking for a charger.
The viral side hustle you can literally stumble into
You are not the only one amused by the idea of getting paid to shut a door. A short clip of a person responding to a stranded car and collecting a quick payout has racked up more than 400,000 views, turning the gig into a minor social media spectacle and a new entry in the long list of “you can get paid for that?” jobs, as noted in coverage that mentions how a video with a laptop emoji caption has more than 400,000 views. The spectacle is part delight, part quiet panic, because every viral clip of a human rescuing a robot is also a reminder that the machines are not quite ready to be left alone with the keys.
For you, the gig can start as casually as noticing a notification while you are already out walking the dog. One report describes how the Waymo robotaxi was sitting with its door slightly open, waiting for help, and how the task of closing it takes only a few minutes, a tiny slice of time that can be slotted between errands or coffee runs if you are within range of the stranded car, according to a breakdown of what happens when a Robotaxi Asks for Help.
The messy reality behind the clean, driverless fantasy
Behind the comedy of it all is a very practical problem: some robotaxis stall when doors are left slightly open by riders, and until someone physically shuts that door, the car will not budge. Workers who have taken these calls say the job is often inefficient, with you trekking out to a vehicle that has been immobilized by a seat belt caught in the door or a passenger who did not quite slam it shut, a pattern described in detail in coverage noting that some robotaxis stall when doors are left slightly open. The cars can handle complex merges on multi-lane roads, but a bit of fabric in the latch still defeats them.
Waymo’s fleet of autonomous robotaxis can navigate city streets and compete with human taxi drivers, yet they become stranded when their doors fail to close properly, which is why the company now pays a flat fee to people who can reach the car faster than a tow truck that might otherwise charge a standard $250 flatbed fee, a tradeoff described in reports on how Waymo’s fleet of autonomous robotaxis is supported. In many cases, the issue a lot of the times is the seatbelt falling into the door area, jamming the door from fully closing and leaving the car stuck in a kind of software purgatory until you come along and yank the belt out of the way, a detail that has been highlighted in discussions noting that seat belts caught in doors are a recurring culprit.
From Google’s moonshot to your neighborhood micro-gig
Zoom out, and you are looking at a new kind of work orbiting one of Silicon Valley’s biggest bets. How some Americans may be earning by helping Google’s Waymo robotaxis is a story about a moonshot that still needs people on the ground, with a new type of gig work emerging in the United States where car owners and local residents describe the job as difficult in its own small way, even if the task itself is as simple as closing a door, as laid out in coverage of how Americans may be earning by helping Google Waymo. You are not driving the car, but you are part of the invisible labor force that keeps the illusion of full autonomy intact.
The job even has its own lore in online forums, where people trade notes on the quirks of these vehicles. One widely shared comment explains that the issue a lot of the times is the seatbelt falling into the door area, jamming the door from fully closing and turning a routine drop-off into a service call that pays you to do what a distracted rider should have done in the first place, as described in a discussion of how the issue a lot of the times is the seatbelt. In one summary of the phenomenon, the scene with Don Adkins and the Jaguar SUV in Los Angeles is held up as the perfect example of how Waymo pays humans $24 to shut doors on stranded robotaxis, turning a glitch in a high-tech system into a tiny, oddly satisfying payday for whoever happens to be closest, as described in a report on Waymo paying humans $24.
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