Waymo is paying DoorDash drivers to close robotaxi doors left open by customers

Waymo has also partnered with a towing company to haul away vehicles that have lost power while on the roads

Waymo has started paying DoorDash drivers to close the doors of its driverless robotaxis, as passengers leave them ajar and can hold up traffic.

The automated cars cannot drive if any of their doors remain open, forcing the company to draft in human assistance to prevent roads from getting clogged up with immobile cabs.

A DoorDash driver took to Reddit to claim Waymo had offered them up to $11 simply for closing the door of a nearby vehicle.

The post, which was upvoted 522 times, showed that the driver had been offered a “guaranteed” $6.25 for the job with an additional $5 up for grabs if they sent proof that the job had been completed.

“You actually DoorDashed,” one user quipped in the comments section.

Waymo has drafted in DoorDash drivers to close its automated taxi’s doors (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Waymo and DoorDash confirmed the bizarre situation is part of a pilot scheme in a joint statement given to CNBC, in which they said that they were always looking for new ways for drivers to earn more money.

However, they acknowledged that Waymo vehicles could soon have new technology installed which would automatically close their car doors.

DoorDash is not the only company that Waymo has drafted in to get stranded taxis moving again.

In parts of California, the robotaxi brand has partnered with Honk, a service that functions similarly to Uber but is aimed at towing companies. Through the partnership, workers can earn up to $20 for closing Waymo taxi doors.

The automated vehicles cannot drive if a door remains open, which means they can clog up roads (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Cesar Marenco, owner of Milagro Towing in Inglewood, told The Washington Post that he is now a regular Waymo door-closer.

He told the newspaper that he completes around three jobs a week for Waymo via the Honk app, either towing vehicles that failed to make it to a charging station or closing doors.

But power outages still present a problem for Waymo, with a December 2025 outage in San Francisco leaving several vehicles stranded across the city.

The robotaxis approach non-functional traffic signals as though they were a four-way stop, just as a regular driver would do, but the lack of human intuition means that they struggle to navigate them in larger, citywide power outages.

The taxi company has plans to roll out more vehicles across several U.S. cities (Getty Images)

Following the San Francisco outage, a Waymo spokesperson told The Washington Post that the “sheer scale of the outage led to instances where vehicles remained stationary longer than usual to confirm the state of the affected intersections.”

The firm also confirmed in a blog post that there was a spike in requests for human workers, as difficult intersections may necessitate that a vehicle checks in with officials to “ensure it makes the safest choice.”

But Waymo reportedly has plans to expand its operations, with The Post reporting the company will launch rides in Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando throughout 2026.