{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/automotive-and-watercraft-service-attendants/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants", "soc_code": "53-6031", "category": "Transportation", "us_employment": 102010, "median_annual_wage": 35670 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 41, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 13, "embodiment": 16, "liability_shield": 2, "trust_premium": 6, "judgment_accountability": 4 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Sitting at 13 rather than higher because the physical half — dragging a fuel hose to a boat gunwale, topping off washer fluid, mounting a wiper blade — has no software substitute, but the other half of your shift (ringing up sales, running card readers, logging tank dips, filling out shift reconciliation) is already handled by kiosks and POS systems in most states.", "embodiment": "A 16 reflects a dock or forecourt that is never the same twice: fueling on a rocking boat, kneeling on wet pavement to read a tire gauge in February, hoisting an outboard, moving vehicles through a wash bay — uncontrolled surfaces and moving hulls are precisely where robotics still fails, though the fixed pump island keeps it below the 18-20 of field repair work.", "liability_shield": "At 2 there is no licence gating this job — no state credential to pump gas or launch a watercraft — and where a hazmat or fuel-handling certificate exists, it belongs to the station operator or marina under EPA/OSHA rules, not to you personally, so nothing in law says a human must hold the nozzle except New Jersey's and Oregon's attendant statutes, which are policy, not licensure.", "trust_premium": "A 6 covers the real but shallow relationship: marina regulars ask for you by name and slip-holders tip attendants who remember their boat and fuel type, but the majority of interactions are a 90-second transaction with a stranger who chose the station for its price and location.", "judgment_accountability": "A 4 is right because the decisions are bounded and procedural — which grade the customer asked for, whether to stop fueling on a spill, when to call the manager about a bad card — with spill response, static rules, and grounding steps written in the site's operating manual rather than left to your call." }, "rationale": "Pumping fuel, checking oil and tire pressure, washing windshields, and hooking up boats at a marina dock are physical tasks in wet, cluttered, weather-exposed settings — language models cannot touch them and fueling robotics remain a novelty. The real threat is not AI but self-service, kiosk payment, and automated car washes, which already erased most of this occupation outside New Jersey, Oregon, and full-service marinas. What remains automatable now is the register work: transactions, receipts, loyalty signups, inventory logs, and shift paperwork.", "outlook": "Headcount keeps eroding as self-service and automated washes spread, but the surviving jobs concentrate in marinas and full-service detailing where hands on hulls and engines still get paid.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State fire-marshal / weights-and-measures rules mandating a trained attendant to dispense fuel — New Jersey's full-service ban on self-serve (N.J.S.A. 34:3A-4) is the live example; Oregon's 2023 HB 2426 went the other way and repealed most of its ban. A comparable statute or an NFPA 30A adoption requiring an attendant present for marine/dockside fueling (fuel-spill and vapor liability on water) would raise this materially; marina fueling already carries Coast Guard and state spill-response obligations naming a responsible attendant.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift as register work, loyalty signup and shift paperwork migrate to kiosks and app payment, leaving the surviving jobs concentrated in genuinely two-tier settings: marina dockhands doing boat handling in wind and current, EV charge-bay assistance and cable troubleshooting, hazmat fuel-delivery oversight. This raises the score only for the remaining roles while the headcount shrinks — it is not protection for the occupation's size.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Full-service marina and premium-detail segments where customers pay explicitly for a human handling a six-figure boat — a documented willingness to pay dock-attendant service fees rather than self-dock, plus dealer/luxury-brand valet fueling programs. Narrow and segment-limited, not general.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If insurers writing marina operator policies require a named attendant to conduct and sign a pre-fueling safety check (bilge ventilation, engine off, no ignition sources) as a condition of coverage — an existing practice in some marine liability underwriting — the attendant owns a consequential call under ambiguity.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "The binding constraint is not AI capability but self-service economics: kiosks and automated washes already removed most of these jobs, and Oregon's 2023 repeal shows the attendant-mandate lever moving in the deregulating direction. Even with every lever firing, the ceiling is roughly mid-50s and applies to a shrinking marina/full-service remnant rather than the occupation as counted." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 118850, "wage": 23390 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 113760, "wage": 24200 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 117670, "wage": 25200 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 112750, "wage": 26540 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 111480, "wage": 29330 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 99600, "wage": 30850 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 92530, "wage": 33820 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 98270, "wage": 34850 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 102010, "wage": 35670 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -14.2, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "home-appliance-repairers", "title": "Home Appliance Repairers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 67, "median_wage": 50990, "overlap": 79, "skills_to_close": [ "Troubleshooting", "Installation", "Quality Control Analysis", "Repairing" ] }, { "slug": "bicycle-repairers", "title": "Bicycle Repairers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 55, "median_wage": 42780, "overlap": 75, "skills_to_close": [ "Troubleshooting", "Equipment Selection", "Repairing", "Quality Control Analysis" ] }, { "slug": "motorboat-mechanics-and-service-technicians", "title": "Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 67, "median_wage": 57550, "overlap": 74, "skills_to_close": [ "Troubleshooting", "Repairing", "Equipment Maintenance", "Operations Monitoring" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }