As Waymo expands its robotaxi fleet, former ride-share drivers are finding new careers maintaining and servicing autonomous vehicles instead of driving passengers. A new 80,000-square-foot cleaning and maintenance depot opening in Nashville this October will employ about 70 full-time workers, roughly half of whom previously drove for Lyft, offering an early glimpse at how AI-driven automation reshapes labor markets rather than simply destroying jobs.

What Happens to Drivers When Robotaxis Take Over?

Jonathan Baines spent about a decade driving for Lyft while pursuing a music career. Today, he works as a fleet operations lead at Waymo's existing Nashville depot, which Lyft's Flexdrive subsidiary took over in June. His job involves directing robotaxi traffic through the facility and determining whether vehicles are ready to return to passengers. "The general idea is to keep cars rolling through," Baines explains.

Chauncey Thompson, who spent roughly a decade in the rental-car industry before driving for Lyft, now works as a fleet operations associate. Both men say they prefer depot work to driving. Thompson cites the opportunity to work with new technology, consistent hours, and the camaraderie of working on a team. "I miss driving because I love interacting with people," Baines says. "But in terms of the actual work itself, I love this more".

Why Do Robotaxis Need More Maintenance Than You'd Think?

The transition from human-driven vehicles to autonomous fleets creates unexpected labor demands. Flexdrive CEO John Parks notes that autonomous-fleet management is significantly more labor-intensive than traditional car rentals. "Autonomous vehicles can't clean themselves, they can't charge themselves and they can't repair themselves," Parks explained. "Now all of those come back to our depot".

John Parks

The math is striking. Robotaxis can operate roughly 100,000 miles per year, compared with about 40,000 miles for vehicles in Flexdrive's traditional rental fleet. This higher mileage translates directly into more frequent servicing. Depot workers charge and clean robotaxis about two to three times per day, rather than every few months when Lyft drivers return rental vehicles. Currently, about 50 Waymos operate in Nashville, though that number will grow gradually over time.

The work itself combines routine tasks with judgment calls. Thompson inspects each car, charges it, wipes it down, vacuums it, and checks tire pressure. But workers also troubleshoot broken chargers, reposition badly positioned vehicles that disrupt depot flow, and flag issues requiring technician attention. After a storm, Baines might notice mud on a car's rocker panels or a window calibration issue and send it for further inspection. For now, deciding whether a car is clean enough to return to passengers still relies on human judgment.

How Is AI Reshaping Work Across Industries?

The Nashville depot illustrates a broader economic phenomenon that researchers are only beginning to measure. AI doesn't simply eliminate jobs; it can break them apart, automate some tasks, and shift others to new workers. Alexander Alonso, chief knowledge officer at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), calls this the "redesign of work." "The big metric is not only jobs lost," Alonso stated. "It is: How are jobs changing?"

SHRM research reveals the scale of this shift. About 42% of workers expect AI to significantly change their roles, while 35% of the skills in current job postings did not appear in postings for the same jobs a year and a half earlier. However, Alonso noted a critical gap: "We're not seeing a one-for-one replacement" of jobs lost to AI with new AI-related positions.

Alonso

SHRM estimates that 22 million U.S. jobs have the technical potential to be displaced by AI and automation by 2030. However, after accounting for consumer preferences, regulations, and jobs that combine automatable and nonautomatable tasks, the organization considers about 8 million realistically at risk. As Alonso explained, "The technology might automate one responsibility, but if the organization still needs the person for the other tasks, it doesn't actually create savings".

As Alonso

Steps to Understand the Future of Work in an AI-Driven Economy

• Track Job Redesign, Not Just Job Loss: Monitor how companies are restructuring roles rather than eliminating them entirely. The Nashville depot shows that automation can create new categories of work, even as it eliminates others.
• Assess Skill Relevance: Workers transitioning from driving to depot maintenance gain experience with emerging technology, which many perceive as more secure for future employment prospects. Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, noted that "workers would rather be working on a product that they think is where the future is headed".
• Evaluate Frequency of Human Touch: As Parks noted, the shift from occasional vehicle returns to multiple daily touchpoints creates sustained labor demand. Understanding where human judgment remains essential, even in automated systems, helps predict which jobs will persist.

For Lyft, which sold its self-driving division in 2021, the Flexdrive partnership with Waymo offers a path back into autonomous transportation without building the technology itself. Riders will be able to hail Waymos through Lyft's app in addition to Waymo's own app later this year, putting Lyft on both sides of the operation: providing the platform through which passengers request rides and the human infrastructure that keeps vehicles clean and running.

The social experience of depot work differs markedly from driving. Baines and Thompson lost the passing interactions with passengers but gained sustained relationships with coworkers and potential career opportunities within the autonomous vehicle industry. Both men still occasionally drive for Lyft, but they describe their new roles as more compelling and aligned with where they believe the future of transportation is headed.