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New York City streets: honking cabs, zig-zagging delivery bikes, pedestrians with little respect for traffic lights, and, perhaps soon, Tesla robotaxi testers.
As Tesla lays the groundwork to expand its robotaxi service to more US cities, recent job listings indicate that it’s hiring autonomous vehicle operators in the Big Apple to help it do so.
Tesla is hiring prototype vehicle operators in Queens, New York, to operate engineering cars with “autonomous driving systems” and collect driving data, according to a job listing on the company’s website titled “Vehicle Operator, Autopilot.”
The gig pays up to $33.66 an hour, but not all drivers will be paid the same amount, according to the posting.
A Test Operator I can make between $25.25 and $27.60 an hour base pay, while a Test Operator II drivers earn between $28.75 and $30.60 an hour base (minimum wage for large employers in New York City is $16.50). Anyone working an afternoon or night shift makes 10% more than the base pay, which would bring the hourly pay up to $33.66 at the highest pay range, and all are eligible for Tesla benefits.
Applicants should be able to work a “flexible schedule,” the posting says, including availability on one weekend day. The gig is either Tuesday through Saturday or Sunday through Thursday, with two different day, afternoon, and night shifts available.
It’s not just driving a car — those who get the gig will need to operate recording devices, debug software as needed, collect and analyze audio and camera data, and give detailed feedback. The ideal applicant has to have good English communication skills, be “tech-savvy with experience managing tools for data collection and troubleshooting with advanced PC skills,” and be familiar with autonomous driving systems.
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Tesla is also hiring test drivers in other cities, with job postings listed in Texas, Florida, and California. The electric vehicles news outlet InsideEVs previously reported that Tesla was also hiring drivers in Brooklyn. The listings in Florida and Texas don’t include pay details, but New York law requires businesses with four or more employees to include salary ranges in any job postings. Drivers in Palo Alto, California, can make the same amount as those in Queens, according to Tesla’s jobs board.
A spokesperson for New York City’s Department of Transportation confirmed to BI that Tesla hasn’t applied for a permit to test autonomous vehicles on the city’s streets, as CNBC earlier reported. The city rolled out safety requirements for autonomous vehicles last year, and a press release called New York “the country’s most challenging urban environment.”
Tesla is currently operating a limited group of robotaxis in Austin, Texas, with safety employees in the passenger seat. In San Francisco, Tesla has begun offering its ride-hailing service with safety employees in the driver’s seat ready to take over if needed.
During Tesla’s earnings call in July, Musk said that the company is working to launch autonomous ride-hailing in “most of the country” eventually, and predicted that the service would likely be available in “probably half of the population of the US by the end of the year,” depending on regulatory approvals. Representatives for Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Tesla’s job listings often shed insight on the company’s direction and product road map.
Last year, Tesla offered people up to $48 per hour to help train its Optimus humanoid robot. Public registration data also reveals that Tesla has ramped up its efforts to test autonomous vehicles in California over the last year.
Business Insider’s Grace Kay previously reported that test drivers for Tesla’s self-driving cars sometimes navigated dicey situations on open streets and were encouraged to push the technology to its limit.
Earlier this month, a Florida jury found Tesla partly liable for a crash in 2019 that killed a 22-year-old woman, and a group of company shareholders recently sued the company and CEO Elon Musk over its robotaxi service, alleging its robotaxis violate traffic laws.
Tesla’s job listings are the latest indicator that the robotaxi wars are heating up, as Lyft joins the fray in Europe and Alphabet-owned Waymo leads the market in the US. In June, Waymo applied for a permit to test robotaxis in New York City.
Are you a robotaxi test driver or do you have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
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