The life of an Uber driver often involves extended downtime when waiting for ride requests or charging an electric vehicle’s battery. To make the most of those idle moments, Uber has launched a driving program that allows drivers and couriers to earn extra money by completing digital tasks that train AI models for Uber’s business clients.
“Drivers are asking for more ways to get around, even if they’re not on the road,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. To deal with this request, drivers will quickly be able to enter quick tasks, an app ranging from uploading documents (such as restaurant menus or receipts – providing daily audio samples and recording audio samples.
The pilot will launch later this fall as part of Uber’s Ai Solutions Group, a division made last November to provide data labeling services to other businesses. Its client list includes Aurora, a self-driving software developer; Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go; and luma ai, a video-to-video generator. Until now, Uber AI Solutions has relied on freelance gig workers to complete data labeling tasks. The new program changes those allocations to Uber’s network of drivers and dispatchers, giving them access to additional cash games directly through the driver app.
In addition to the upcoming launch in the US, uber has already been piloted in more than 12 cities in India. “Until now, these jobs were completed by independent contractors without an app,” said Megha Youthadka, global head of Uber AI Solutions, in a September Linkedin Post describing the Indian driver as “very promising.”
Before accepting a job, drivers will be able to see the expected payment rate and completion time. They can only take digital jobs while not actively signed up to drive or deliver for Uber.
While data labeling is new territory for Uber, it has long been a critical part of AI development. One of the biggest players in the space is AI AI, which was valued at $29 billion earlier this year following $14 billion in funding from meta. Other players include Surge AI, which counts anthropic and Microsoft among its clients, and in-house data labeling systems run by model developers like XaI.
Khosrowshahi first discussed Uber’s plans to import digital jobs at the Bloomberg Tech conference in June, where he laid out a strategy to expand the salary opportunities for drivers and dispatchers over the next five to 10 years. He also described the effort to market data as a form of “knowledge work” emerging from the AI Era and on the way to providing new job options as automated and autonomous vehicles threaten traditional driving roles.
Uber announced the Digital Tasks Initiative yesterday (Oct. 16) at its annual Uber-only event, which features new features inspired by driver and courier feedback. Other updates unveiled at the event include a new temperature tool that shows wanted hotspots, a rider rating filter that allows drivers to use trip pay, and a trained-Ride Crainer that offers longer than estimated times.
Uber has also announced the expansion of a feature that favors women, which allows female drivers to accept rides only for female passengers – an adjustment that has been used for more than 150 million weeks and works every week with one in four female drivers.
