Uber testing program to let drivers earn money doing AI-related tasks

Ride-share giant Uber announced Thursday it will let drivers earn extra income by completing small digital tasks through its app when they’re not picking up passengers or delivering food orders.

The company revealed the new program during its Only on Uber 2025 conference held in Washington, D.C. Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the initiative comes from the company’s AI Solutions Group and is currently being tested with drivers in India.

Drivers participating in the pilot program can take on tasks like snapping and uploading pictures that help teach artificial intelligence systems. Another example involves making voice recordings in various languages or accents by following specific instructions, according to Uber spokesperson Meghan Casserly.

The company made clear these assignments have nothing to do with its self-driving car partnerships or work on vehicles that drive themselves, CNBC reported.

Payment structure mirrors freelance platforms

How much drivers get paid depends on how hard the task is and how long it takes. Workers can check the payment amount before they decide to take on any job. The setup mirrors services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and Upwork, which connect people with small freelance jobs and data work. Uber said it won’t share who the clients are or give details about the specific AI projects drivers might work on.

The announcement came after extensive input from drivers themselves. Khosrowshahi explained that Uber ran more than 60 sessions called Crew meetings that included over 100 staff members. These sessions collected hundreds of hours of suggestions about everything from how products work to company rules.

During a recent appearance at an “All-In” podcast summit, Khosrowshahi addressed the long-term challenges facing gig workers in the ride-sharing industry. As reported by Cryptopolitan, he said automated vehicles replacing human drivers is not a question of whether it will happen, but rather a question of timing. The executive predicted this shift could occur within 10 to 15 years.

He described the situation as a major challenge that society will need to address, calling it a significant question without easy solutions. Millions of workers around the world currently depend on Uber, Lyft, and similar companies for their livelihoods. When self-driving technology becomes widespread, many of these drivers could lose their jobs.

However, Khosrowshahi emphasized that human drivers remain critical for now. He pointed out that Uber’s service is growing so rapidly that the company will need more human drivers and delivery workers for at least the next five to seven years.

The company has already begun operating vehicles without drivers through its collaboration with Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company. Uber recently disclosed that it’s speaking with banks and private investment firms about securing money to grow its automated taxi operations.

Female rider preference expands to more cities

Along with the new earning option, Uber rolled out its female rider preference feature to more cities. The service, which first launched in July, now works in Baltimore, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. It matches women drivers with women passengers when requested.

Khosrowshahi noted that in places where the option already exists worldwide, female drivers have chosen to use it on more than 100 million rides.

The company also announced two other changes for all drivers on Thursday. First, every driver can now block passengers with low ratings. They can adjust what minimum rating they’ll accept and change these settings for different times during the day or night.

Second, Uber introduced what it calls a delayed ride guarantee. When a trip runs more than five minutes over the original time estimate, drivers will receive extra pay. Casserly noted that riders might see higher charges in some cases, depending on whether the delay happened due to traffic conditions or because the passenger added more stops along the way.