From jobs to dates: How San Francisco's tech workers are using robot taxis to leave handwritten notes

Waymo robotaxis

In a twist of old-school charm meets sci-fi transit, recruiters and those looking for a date have found a new medium: robotaxis. According to a report by The Washington Post, robotaxis are quirkily being used to leave handwritten notes. The report quotes Influur CEO Alessandra Angelini, who decided to skip LinkedIn and instead slid a handwritten job ad into the console of a self-driving Waymo taxi in San Francisco. Scribbled on the note: a call for senior software engineers to join an AI/music project, plus contact details.

The analog recruiting tactic caught gained a lot of digital traction. A Waymo passenger snapped a photo of the note and posted it to X (formerly Twitter), where it quickly racked up over 300,000 views and 4,000 likes. Angelini, based in Miami, said she’s since received about 60 résumés from Bay Area engineers—the kind of AI-savvy talent she’s chasing. “It was kind of an old-school ad that worked pretty good,” Angelini said. No algorithm required.

Only on a Waymo in SF pic.twitter.com/l2J6XGddXb
Christina (@christinazgr) April 7, 2025

That's not the only instance of robotaxis being used as an unconventional form of reaching out to others. Just days later, another handwritten note surfaced in a Waymo—this time from a single 26-year-old tech worker searching not for coders, but for connection. His message? A quick pitch about his personality and a phone number for potential dates to text. That post, too, blew up.

Waymo, which says its cars are cleaned each time they return to the depot, didn’t seem to mind the spontaneous in-car classifieds. “We’re proud to be driving mobility both personally and professionally,” the company told The Washington Post.

my friend just found this in a waymo pic.twitter.com/uV16iTILKf alli (@sonofalli) April 11, 2025

While dating experts are split—one calls the Waymo note “clever but inefficient,” another praises its authenticity—both agree it reflects a broader fatigue with hyper-optimized, AI-powered everything.

Silicon Valley -- more so the Bay Area -- is after all, the epicenter of a culture increasingly bent on replacing humans with machines, from job recruitment to romantic companionship. So perhaps it’s fitting that some locals are opting for the most analog route possible: a pen, some paper, and a captive audience in a driverless ride.

As Christina Zerka, a 23-year-old tourist from New York who posted the viral job ad photo, put it: “This would only happen in San Francisco.” And apparently, the internet agrees.