Imagine one day,
you open a ride-hailing app,
and a car actually arrives.
The door really opens.
But there’s no one behind the wheel.
The first question most people ask is:
Where did the original driver go?
Lyft is now offering a very interesting answer in Nashville.
Not everyone disappears.
At least some people simply shift to the other side of the car.
Lyft is now sending you a "driverless car" for rides
On September 9, 2026,
Lyft and Waymo officially announced that
passengers in Nashville can now be matched with fully autonomous Waymo vehicles through the Lyft app.
There’s no safety driver.
No human sitting behind the steering wheel.
Passengers still do the usual:
Open Lyft.
Request a ride.
Wait for the car.
Only difference—
the vehicle picking you up might not be driven by a Lyft driver,
but instead by an autonomous driving system.
Lyft hasn’t eliminated all human drivers.
Nashville remains a "mixed network" for now.
Some cars are human-driven,
others drive themselves,
existing side by side.
But driverless cars don’t just magically appear on the street
Here’s where the story gets truly interesting.
When people see robotaxis,
they often assume that
if the car drives itself,
humans aren’t needed at all.
But a driverless car operating daily to ferry passengers involves a lot more behind the scenes.
Cars need cleaning.
Charging.
Inspection.
Maintenance.
Sensor checks.
Scheduling—which vehicle goes out when.
Positioning cars in areas with more ride demand.
If something goes wrong,
someone still has to handle it.
Waymo’s strength is letting cars drive themselves.
But in Nashville,
the operations behind the fleet are managed by Lyft’s Flexdrive.
They handle vehicle maintenance, infrastructure, and depot operations.
In short:
Driving is automated.
But running a fleet of self-driving cars every day
creates a whole new set of jobs.
Even more interestingly: many doing these jobs used to be Lyft drivers
WIRED visited Lyft’s temporary operations center in Nashville.
There are currently 72 staff members.
Lyft told WIRED
that about half of them were former Lyft drivers.
This number is notable.
It turns the often-heard claim
"AI creates new jobs"
into a visible, concrete reality.
Previously,
these people sat in cars,
driving passengers to their destinations.
Now,
some of them have transitioned to roles that include:
Cleaning driverless vehicles.
Preparing vehicles.
Inspecting vehicle conditions.
Managing the fleet.
Ensuring cars can continue picking up passengers.
Jonathan Baines is one example
WIRED interviewed Jonathan Baines, a former Lyft driver.
He started driving for Lyft in 2016,
with about 10 years of experience.
His old job was simple:
Drive the car.
Pick up passengers.
Take them to their destination.
Now,
his title is:
Fleet Operations Lead.
He no longer spends the day driving one car.
Instead, he supervises other staff,
making sure Waymo vehicles are cleaned, prepped, and meet operational standards.
Put differently:
It used to be:
One person controls one car.
Now it’s becoming:
One person manages a group of self-driving cars.
This difference might be where autonomous driving truly changes the nature of work.
It’s similar to how elevators evolved from needing operators to only needing maintenance staff
Early elevators
often required an operator.
Someone would control it for you,
moving it up and down, stopping at floors, opening and closing doors.
Automation gradually replaced this role,
making the work disappear.
But elevators never became
"completely human-free."
Rather, the human role just changed.
No one stands inside pushing buttons all day anymore,
but there is still a need for:
Maintenance.
Inspection.
Repairs.
Monitoring.
Troubleshooting.
Robotaxis could follow a similar path.
The real disappearance might not be
all car-related jobs,
but rather:
People sitting behind the wheel controlling the steering wheel every day.
But this story is not all optimistic
Seeing former Lyft drivers transition to managing Waymo in Nashville doesn’t mean
that all drivers affected by robotaxis in the future
will find new jobs in autonomous vehicle operations.
The two numbers are completely different things.
A city may need thousands of drivers,
but how many people does it take
to maintain a fleet of robotaxis?
Cleaning, maintenance, and fleet operations?
There’s no clear answer yet.
Plus, these new jobs require skills
that aren’t necessarily the same as driving.
Knowing how to drive doesn’t naturally mean you can:
Maintain sensors.
Manage charging infrastructures.
Operate fleet systems.
Analyze equipment faults.
Handle technical issues.
So “job transition” doesn’t mean
each old job maps one-to-one into a new one.
This is why Lyft keeps emphasizing the "mixed network" approach
Lyft’s current position is clear:
Human drivers and autonomous vehicles
will coexist on the same platform for a long time.
In Nashville,
passengers who don’t want a Waymo vehicle
can opt out of autonomous ride matches.
Human drivers continue providing rides.
So it’s not yet a scenario where
"Once robotaxis arrive, all Lyft drivers vanish immediately."
It’s more of a transition period.
In the same city,
some cars are human-driven,
some drive themselves,
some people ferry passengers,
and others care for the self-driving fleet behind the scenes.
The real shift is that work moves from "operation" to "management"
This shift is not limited to ride-hailing platforms.
Yesterday, we saw JD.com’s logistics robots,
which are heading in a similar direction.
When machines start moving goods themselves,
people’s jobs might gradually change from
doing it themselves
to managing the moving machines.
When cars start driving themselves,
work might gradually change from
driving yourself
to managing autonomous fleets.
When AI agents start handling workflows autonomously,
people’s roles might shift from:
manually performing every step
to:
setting rules,
monitoring results,
and handling exceptions.
Behind these changes is a common pattern:
People transition from "operators inside the system" to "managers overseeing the system."
But managers might be fewer than operators
This is another important consideration.
If 100 cars used to require 100 people behind the wheel,
100 robotaxis may require fewer people
to manage cleaning, charging,
maintenance, scheduling,
and fleet oversight.
That’s why:
"AI creates new jobs"
and
"AI doesn’t reduce jobs"
are two very different statements.
New jobs may indeed emerge,
but how many?
What skills do they need?
What pay do they offer?
Can displaced workers transition?
These questions must be considered separately.
Lyft is actually conducting a major experiment right now
Lyft’s temporary operations center in Nashville
is just a beginning.
The company also plans to open an 80,000-square-foot dedicated AV depot in October.
If Waymo’s autonomous fleet grows,
this facility will reveal:
How many people it truly takes to manage a large self-driving fleet?
Which roles increase?
Which ones decrease?
How many vehicles can one employee oversee?
These numbers may be even more important than whether robotaxis succeed or not.
Because they will show us
where humans fit once automation becomes part of daily life.
So the real story to watch isn’t Waymo entering another city
Waymo’s Nashville launch is a self-driving news item.
But the truly worth-watching story
is the group of former drivers inside Lyft’s depot.
They offer the first concrete glimpse of:
What the next job looks like after automation takes over the original role.
Not everyone will successfully transition,
and not every old role can be replaced one-to-one by a new one.
But many job changes won’t be about
work suddenly disappearing overnight.
Instead, a key task within the job is taken over by machines,
and people gradually shift to new positions.
Driving yourself before,
caring for self-driving cars now.
The next question becomes:
As AI handles more tasks for us, do we need to learn how to manage the AI and machines working on our behalf?
Today, let’s grow a bit alongside AI.
Learn one AI skill a day.
Save a bit of time daily.
Improve your abilities.
SasaDaily, growing with you.
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