This archive report was first published on 26 August 2021.
Kenyans' Hidden Role in Self-Driving Cars Development ¶
As the world rushes to perfect self-driving cars, a significant portion of the work is being outsourced to low-wage workers in third-world countries, including Kenya.
Alfred, a 2019 University of Nairobi graduate, has been working on labeling images for self-driving cars since September 2019. He earns pennies per hour, with his income fluctuating between Ksh10,000 and Ksh1,000 per week.
Remotasks, the company Alfred works for, has a global membership of over 100,000 youth, with 50 of them based in Kenya. The platform pays workers Ksh100 per hour, with the payment depending on the size of errors found in completed tasks and the time taken to complete them.
Alfred's experience is not unique, as many Kenyans are working on self-driving cars development, contributing to the Ksh341 billion sent by Kenyans abroad in 2020.
According to Rest of the World, a global media company, the global obsession with self-driving cars began in 2010, with Google investing Ksh100 billion in their development.
Remotasks and similar platforms involve clients who provide tasks to workers and hire separate fact-checkers to ensure minimal errors. The clients provide images and videos captured during test runs, and workers label the identities of mundane items, such as streetlights, trees, and pedestrians.
The companies operating in countries like Kenya, Venezuela, and the Philippines pay workers Ksh100 per hour, with the payment varying depending on the size of errors found and the time taken to complete tasks.
