COOKED
The core task — driving a passenger from A to B, plus fare calculation, routing, and dispatch response — is the single task the AV industry has spent $100B+ to automate, and Waymo already runs paid driverless rides at scale in Phoenix, SF, LA, and Austin. Embodiment normally protects, but here the robot is the product: a car on mapped urban roads is a far easier physical problem than a crawl space or an ICU. What survives near-term is the human-contact residue: wheelchair and stretcher assistance, luggage, unaccompanied minors, medical transport, and airport/hotel runs where a named driver with a phone number is the service.
Core tasks are already automatable. Fare metering, dispatch acceptance, GPS routing and lane-keeping are all shipped features in a Waymo or Zoox vehicle today, which puts this at 6 rather than 0 only because curbside pickup in double-parked traffic, loading a folded wheelchair into a trunk, and dealing with a passenger who vomits or won't get out still need hands.
Some physical or field component. You are in a vehicle on public roads all shift — lifting suitcases, assisting elderly riders in and out, occasionally shoveling snow off the hood — but the road itself is mapped, signed, and geometrically constrained, which is why this sits at 11 instead of the 16+ of a lineman on a pole or a plumber under a house.
Certification preferred, not legally required. A chauffeur endorsement or TLC hack licence is a city permit with a background check and a medical, not a professional licence that makes you personally answerable for an outcome; the fleet's commercial policy and the TNC's insurance absorb the claim, so at 5 the paperwork barely slows a driverless competitor down.
Some relationship component. Street hails and app dispatch are anonymous by design and the passenger is rating a 5-minute interaction, which caps this at 6 — the points come from the minority of the trade with a repeat book: the hotel doorman's regular, the standing dialysis run, the school contract where the parent wants the same face every morning.
Executes defined procedures on defined inputs. Route choice, when to refuse an intoxicated fare, and how to handle a no-show are governed by company policy, meter rules, and municipal regs, and a supervisor or the app resolves disputes — the discretion is real but small-stakes and reversible, hence 4.
Has AI actually changed your work?