What Autonomous Cars Mean to People Who Drive for a Living

Tech giants Google, Apple and Intel are in a race with automakers like BMW and Tesla to perfect an autonomous driver system that's reliable and replicable within the next few years. Yet as the world watches on with visions of a Jetsons-like future and city policymakers consider regulations, people who drive for a living in U.S. cities are trying to figure out what it all means for them. Technical advances have always come with negative impacts like job losses for some, but driving careers in particular are worth watching because they're economic multipliers at the city level. Ninety-three percent of the 4.1 million employed drivers in the U.S. don't have bachelor's degrees, yet drivers on the whole average a poverty rate that's lower than workers who aren't in the driving field, at 7.32 percent compared to 8.08 percent. And while nearly two-thirds of drivers identify as white, D.C.-based think tank Center for Global Policy Solutions reports that minorities in driving careers have a "premium" in this field, meaning they're getting paid better than what they'd likely get paid in other non-driving careers without a college degree, according to U.S. Census data. That's something that Jose Garcia, a construction waste driver in New York City, can attest to.