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In November 2018, 33-year-old Zhang Jiaqiang made a decision that surprised his family. He planned to leave Luoyang and become an older migrant worker to Beijing to make a living. "There are many well-known companies in Beijing, including Baidu, Tencent, and ByteDance, and there are many job opportunities. Both traditional and emerging industries have a huge job market."

In addition to pursuing better job opportunities, Zhang Jiaqiang also has some considerations regarding his children's education:If I can settle down in Beijing, I can bring my children to Tianjin for school. Compared with Henan, a province with fierce college entrance examination competition, Tianjin was once described as the most cost-effective province in the country.

At that time, Zhang Jiaqiang's eldest daughter was in the first grade and his youngest son had just turned one year old, leaving him with a relatively ample time window to strive.

During his six years of living in Beijing, Zhang Jiaqiang has maintained the habit of returning home every two months, but his family is still somewhat uncomfortable with the less frequent meetings. This has accelerated Zhang Jiaqiang's desire to achieve success in his new job and buy a house and settle down as soon as possible.

A recent list of new occupations published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has given Zhang Jiaqiang more confidence in his prospects of finding a job and buying a house.Zhang Jiaqiang's job as an intelligent connected vehicle assembler, operator and maintenance worker, as well as the related intelligent connected vehicle tester, are included in the latest published occupational list.

This means that the niche career track that Zhang Jiaqiang chose six years ago is experiencing an explosion in the number of practitioners. Especially after the advent of AI big model technology, the autonomous driving industry has also entered a critical development period. More and more companies are engaged in the autonomous driving industry, and the ability of autonomous driving is getting stronger and stronger. On the recruitment software, searching for the keywords "autonomous driving" and "unmanned vehicle safety officer" has increased significantly compared with last year.This year's related recruitment needs have increased visibly.Major companies have released a large number of safety officer recruitment needs. Among them, Luobo Kuaipao has clearly stated that it will give priority to candidates with experience as online car-hailing drivers.

"We receive an average of 600 to 700 resumes per day for the position of autonomous driving safety officer at LoBo KuaiPao. Many job seekers have driven online ride-hailing cars before." On August 20, the head of recruitment at a human resources company told Zizibang, "When screening resumes, we will also give priority to job seekers with experience in driving online ride-hailing cars."

Along with the demand comesMore ordinary people are beginning to have historical opportunities to participate in cutting-edge technology:Li Cheng, a 40-year-old Wuhan native who has been a full-time dad for eight years, became an autonomous driving road test safety officer in 2022; Lu Weibing, a 40-year-old Wuhan native who could no longer work in the online car-hailing industry, became an autonomous driving ground safety officer in the same year; Wang Juan, a 43-year-old Wuhan native who terminated her contract with a traditional car company, also became an autonomous driving road test safety officer in 2023...

The bright prospects of autonomous driving have even attracted a group of young people born after 1995 to join in. Liu Jianhua, born in 1998, started to become an autonomous driving installation and maintenance worker in 2023 based on his love for autonomous driving technology.

Liu Jianhua sees the public's acceptance of autonomous driving technology as an important dimension for measuring the development prospects of autonomous driving. "In the beginning, some people were worried that autonomous driving was unsafe and did not dare to try it out, but now in places like Beijing, Wuhan, and Shenzhen, driverless vehicles have been accepted by more and more ordinary citizens."

When a technology is recognized by more people and they are willing to try it, on the one hand it means the broad development prospects of this technology, and on the other hand it often means the arrival of a new change in the labor market configuration.

The "replacement anxiety" caused by AI has also been widely mentioned as technologies such as autonomous driving mature. According to data released by CCID Consulting, AI will replace 85 million jobs, but "technological progress and changes in the labor relationship between machines and people will create 97 million new jobs in the future, far more than the jobs replaced by AI," said Fu Changwen, president of CCID Consulting.

Why are there still so many people worried that AI will reduce job opportunities? Perhaps, as Baidu founder Robin Li said, "This is because everyone can see that current jobs will disappear, but they can't see any new job opportunities will be created. Just like those people 100 or 200 years ago, they couldn't see the new job opportunities that would be created later."

A

Before deciding to start his life as an older migrant worker in Beijing, Zhang Jiaqiang, who entered the workplace in 2008, had already worked in Luoyang for 10 years.

After graduating from a major in mechanical design, manufacturing and automation, Zhang Jiaqiang's first job was in a locomotive factory in Luoyang, where he was responsible for the manufacture and maintenance of locomotive equipment. After six years, Zhang Jiaqiang joined a new company, where he was responsible for the design of mixer trucks, liquid tank trucks, sprinkler trucks, etc., and stayed there for nearly four years.

After passing the interview and joining Baidu Apollo in November 2018, Zhang Jiaqiang initially applied for a structural design engineer position, and later joined Luobo Kuaipao as a software testing engineer. "But it is 30% related to my previous major, because here it is not only about testing, but also requires a certain understanding of the vehicle, including the structure and layout of some sensors on the vehicle, and mechanical disassembly, etc."

As a maintenance worker of Carrot Fast Run,Zhang Jiaqiang is like the "doctor" of the self-driving car.Before autonomous vehicles actually provide travel services, they are responsible for detecting potential risk points in the vehicle's hardware and software. The specific work is mainly concentrated in three aspects: first, vehicle software deployment, upgrades and debugging; second, calibration of vehicle sensors including lidar, cameras, etc.; third, vehicle quality inspection and closed-loop testing.

Because the Carrot Express driverless car has to iterate its software version every month and upgrade its functions once a week, Zhang Jiaqiang's day of specific operation and maintenance work usually requires him to complete the installation of new version iteration systems for three or four vehicles, as well as the calibration of supporting lidar, cameras and other sensors.

It is with the help of the mutual cooperation between the R&D side and the operation and maintenance side that some newly iterated algorithms of R&D personnel can be installed on test vehicles as soon as possible, so as to continuously improve the actual operation capabilities of autonomous driving.

After the vehicle is installed with the latest iteration of the autonomous driving algorithm, it is the turn of road test safety officers such as Li Cheng and Wang Juan to conduct on-site inspections.

Unlike Zhang Jiaqiang's active choice, most of them joined the team of "Lottery Run" after they reached middle age and encountered sudden changes in the workplace. They had the courage to try new things.

Li Cheng, who has been a full-time stay-at-home dad for eight years, started his first job as a driving school instructor in 2020 after his child started elementary school. He occasionally co-founded an online car-hailing company with his friends, but the instability of these jobs and the anxiety of lack of room for advancement always lingered in Li Cheng's mind. Like Li Cheng, Wang Juan was a little distracted after leaving the car company where she had worked for most of her life in 2018. If she continued to work in the field of fuel vehicles, she might be laid off suddenly one day.

A new policy has opened up a new career path for the two. In 2022, Wuhan issued the first unmanned commercial pilot policy for autonomous vehicles nationwide, allowing autonomous vehicles without safety officers to provide commercial services on social roads.

Having obtained the license, Luobo Kuaipao launched its fully unmanned travel service this year. Li Cheng and Wang Juan successively became road test safety officers for Luobo Kuaipao.

Unlike those robocars that carry passengers, Li Cheng's job is to drive and test the higher-level internal test versions launched by the R&D side. "We will feedback the problems that arise during the road test to the R&D side. After all these problems are solved, these internal test versions will be gradually released to the use of driverless cars."

From January 2023 to now, thanks to the efforts of "Li Chengs", Luobo Kuaipao has gradually completed the coverage of open test roads for intelligent connected vehicles in Wuhan.

After a day of operation, the vehicle must be inspected by ground safety officers such as Lu Weibing.

Lu Weibing, who has sold cars in a 4S store, started his own auto repair shop, and drove an online car-hailing car for several years, applied to become a vehicle safety officer for Luobo Kuaipao in October 2022. After working as a main driver safety officer for one month, he was transferred to a ground safety officer.

At night, when collecting the vehicles, Lu Weibing, as a ground safety officer, needs to take photos of the vehicles for quality inspection, check whether the exterior of the vehicles is damaged, and then wash the vehicles and charge them, repeating the cycle over and over again.

B

Compared with their previous jobs, the experience of working as an autonomous driving safety officer brings them not only a new job, but also new experiences that the new job brings.

As more and more online car-hailing drivers join the ranks of Luobo Kuaipao safety officers, Li Cheng, who has experience driving online car-hailing cars, can understand their choice. According to the survey, except for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, online car-hailing drivers in most regions can only make around 300 yuan per day after driving 10-12 hours a day. But at Luobo Kuaipao, the monthly salary is similar, but they only work 8 hours, and the income is stable and guaranteed.

Lu Weibing, who has been driving online ride-hailing cars in Wuhan for four years, has a deep understanding of this. When he first started driving online ride-hailing cars in 2017, because there was little competition, Lu Weibing drove about 10 hours a day and earned more than 8,000 yuan a month. By 2022, more and more people were driving online ride-hailing cars, and the competition was getting more and more intense. With the same driving time every day, Lu Weibing's monthly salary has shrunk to more than 6,000 yuan, which can no longer cover the family's monthly expenses of more than 6,000 yuan.

After applying for the job as a security officer at Carrot Run,In addition to the improvement in salary and benefits, the more physical feeling is the change in mood。

"Online ride-hailing services encounter many conflicts between drivers and passengers. In addition, the working hours are long and the labor intensity is high. Sitting in the car every day puts people under great psychological pressure, and one does not make any money or get any respect. (LuoBoKuaiPao) is at least a decent job, and one wants to fulfill one's responsibilities, which I think is also very challenging," Lu Weibing shared.

In addition to the change in their mindset, they also rediscovered a long-lost sense of professional pride.

Although he can only reunite with his family once every two months, Zhang Jiaqiang's youngest son, who is now in the second grade, has already gained some understanding of autonomous driving. "The children admire me very much. Sometimes I hold the computer and type some English commands on it, but he doesn't understand them, but he thinks it's very advanced... Especially my youngest son, he likes to brag more, and he will proudly tell his classmates that my dad is working on autonomous driving in Beijing."

Wang Juan also feels this sense of pride. Her youngest son also thinks his mother's industry is very impressive. "Every day he tells his classmates where my mother works."

The sense of pride brought by the new job has gradually dispelled the original worries of Li Cheng's family. When Li Cheng went to work at Wuhan Luobo Kuaipao in 2022, his family did not support him at first, thinking that driverless cars were just a scam. In addition, with elderly parents and young children to take care of, his family was also worried that Li Cheng might get into an accident.

Now, after two years of work, the attitude of his family has changed. "My wife takes the train to and from get off work every day, sometimes 5 or 6 times a day," Li Cheng said with a smile.

C

In addition to gaining new jobs, these ordinary people who were the first to engage in autonomous driving are also beginning to gain greater opportunities for career development.

Li Cheng, who had been idle for eight years as a "nanny", was selected as an instructor two months after he joined the company in July 2022. In January 2023, Li Cheng was further selected as an outstanding instructor and image ambassador of Carrot. In March of the same year, Li Cheng was promoted to lecturer and began to become a team manager who leads new employees.

As the first batch of instructors of Wuhan Luobo Kuaipao, as of now, about 90% of Wuhan's driverless car safety officers, from interviews, departure to graduation, have been completed by Li Cheng and others, and the rough number is no less than 500.

Wang Juan, who also works as a road test safety officer, became a team manager with new employees after working for more than a year. At the age of 43, she opened a new chapter in women's career development.

Lu Weibing, who has worked for two years, has successfully become the ground crew leader of Luobo Kuaipao. Zhang Jiaqiang, who joined the team at the earliest, also began to provide technical support to some out-of-town operations, including routine problem consultation and remote diagnosis.

The reason behind their taking on team management positions is their passion for this new job.In this regard, Zhang Jiaqiang, who has the goal of buying a house and settling down, is undoubtedly more attentive.

When Zhang Jiaqiang joined LoBoKuaiPao as a software testing engineer in 2019, he encountered his first big challenge since joining the new job. At that time, software testing used the Linux operating system, and the work scene required the use of Apple computer terminals or Linux computer terminals, but Zhang Jiaqiang, who had previously worked in integrated design, had always used Windows computers at work. Since then, Zhang Jiaqiang began to teach himself the Linux operating system.After three years of self-study, Zhang Jiaqiang even wrote a small operation and maintenance software program called "Operation and Maintenance Toolbox", which was promoted by the company for use nationwide.

Before this, the operation and maintenance tools needed to be installed on the vehicle side, and they had to be reinstalled for each vehicle. With the "Operation and Maintenance Toolbox", you only need to install the program on your computer, and the tool can be deployed to the system. "Before, two to three vehicles could be installed in an hour. After using this tool, with the help of batch deployment, more than 10 vehicles can be installed in an hour."

In this relatively long process of iterative development of autonomous driving technology, some new occupations that we are not yet aware of are on the eve of being created.

After the advent of the Internet economy, McKinsey Global Institute published a research report in 2011, which pointed out that new Internet technologies are likely to automate some existing economic activities, but the resulting job losses will be offset by the greater wealth and consumption brought about by the use of the Internet. Through a survey of more than 4,800 small and medium-sized enterprises, McKinsey Global Institute found that after the application of Internet technology, for every job that disappears, 2.6 new jobs are created.

Today, the new generative AI era has begun to show signs of replacing the Internet era. Behind the changes brought about by autonomous driving, there are bound to be greater opportunities.