Bloomberg reports that Uber has begun to engage independent contractors to provide data labeling services, as well as hire coders.
On the company’s website, Uber describes its new Scaled Solutions division as a platform of “analysts, testers, and independent data operators.” Scaled Solutions started out as an internal team that handled “large-scale annotation tasks” for other Uber services. It has now expanded to provide data encoders and labelers for external companies such as Pokémon Go developer Niantic Inc. and self-driving trucking software firm Aurora Innovations. Aurora acquired Uber’s self-driving division Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2020, and Uber is one of Aurora’s investors.
This month, Uber started recruiting employees for its Scaled Solutions division from India, the US, Canada, Poland, and Nicaragua. Scaled Solutions also posted several corporate job openings for positions in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. According to FAQs reviewed by Bloomberg, contractors’ pay is distributed monthly, and the total amount depends on the tasks the contractors perform. The company did not provide Bloomberg with any specific rates for its new team of freelancers.
