Converging AI and Human Roles

Role · Transport & Field

Taxi DriversSOC 53-3054.00

Taxi drivers drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, in the definition of O*NET, the US Labor Department’s occupational database (SOC 53-3054.00). O*NET 31.0 lists 16 tasks for the role, from driving and picking up passengers at prearranged locations to communicating with dispatchers, following safety rules, and helping passengers with luggage.1 Bureau of Labor Statistics figures shown on O*NET count 204,200 taxi drivers in the US in 2025, at a median wage of $20.24 an hour or $42,100 a year, with employment projected to grow much faster than average (7% or higher) from 2025 to 2035 and 20,400 projected job openings; that projection is the BLS’s own and is not a statement about robotaxis.1

AI reaches the job through robotaxis: driving systems that carry public riders with no one in the driver’s seat. Waymo says anyone can take a fully autonomous ride in cities including Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami and Nashville,2 Baidu reports charging for fully driverless rides in Chongqing since August 2022 and Wuhan, and in Beijing since August 2023,3 and Pony.ai says it was first to start fully driverless, fare-charging operations in designated areas of all four tier-one Chinese cities.4 WeRide and Uber launched fully driverless paid rides in Dubai on March 31, 2026.5 Other cases are earlier-stage: Zoox carries public riders free in Las Vegas,6 Uber’s London rides with Wayve are supervised by a safety driver,7 and Waymo, Nihon Kotsu and GO have agreed to prepare a Tokyo service for 2027.8

The city-by-city picture, with 80 operator-city pairs graded by status, is in robotaxi services by city and status, and the task-by-task picture, including remote assistance and depot work, is in robotaxis and the taxi driver’s job. Every case on this page is stated by the operator or a regulator, and none reports how many drivers are affected: exposure to automation is not job loss. MetaRoles’ scorecard for the role counts 4 of the 8 tasks it grades as done by AI in production.

Illustration: Taxi Drivers, the role whose driving task robotaxis take over in some cities.

Key facts

O*NET-SOC code53-3054.00 Taxi Drivers1
O*NET tasks16 in O*NET 31.01
US employment, 2025204,200 (BLS, via O*NET)1
Median wage, 2025$20.24 an hour; $42,100 a year (BLS, via O*NET)1
Projected growth, 2025–2035Much faster than average (7% or higher), with 20,400 projected job openings (BLS, via O*NET)1

AI use cases

As of

AI use cases for Taxi Drivers, as of 2026-11-02
Task AI system Organisation Evidence grade Latest source Source
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, fully driverless and paid Waymo Driver Waymo In production 2026-11 2
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, fully driverless and paid Apollo Go Baidu (Chongqing, Wuhan, Beijing) In production 2026-03 3
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, fully driverless and paid, in designated areas Pony.ai robotaxi Pony.ai (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) In production 2026-08 4
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, fully driverless and paid WeRide Robotaxi, on Uber WeRide and Uber (Dubai) In production 2026-03 5
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, with free public rides Zoox robotaxi Zoox (Las Vegas) Pilot 2025-09 6
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, supervised by a safety driver Wayve AI Driver, on Uber Uber and Wayve (London) Pilot 2026-09 7
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, planned driverless service Waymo Driver Waymo, Nihon Kotsu and GO (Tokyo) Prototype 2026-09 8
Drive taxicabs or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers, planned robotaxi service from 2028 NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion Foxconn (Kaohsiung) Vendor claim 2026-05 9

Sorted by evidence grade, then by date. Production means the operator itself says the service runs in public use; every row is stated by the operator or its partner, not independently measured, and the Pony.ai row rests on one company statement with no per-city date. The Waymo row’s source page is undated, so its date is the month we read it. How the grades work.

Appears in

Sources

  1. O*NET OnLine (O*NET 31.0; wages and employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), 53-3054.00 Taxi Drivers, retrieved 2026-11-02.
  2. Waymo, Waymo FAQ (undated page), retrieved 2026-11-02.
  3. Baidu, Form 20-F for fiscal year 2025, filed March 17, 2026.
  4. Pony.ai, Interim results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.2), August 18, 2026.
  5. WeRide, WeRide and Uber launch fully driverless Robotaxi service in Dubai, WeRide release, March 31, 2026.
  6. Zoox, Zoox journal: Las Vegas, September 10, 2025.
  7. Uber, Wayve on Uber, September 2, 2026.
  8. Waymo, Opening Tokyo in 2027 with Nihon Kotsu and GO, September 14, 2026.
  9. NVIDIA, NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion becomes the global platform for a robotaxi-ready world, May 31, 2026.