As robotaxi wars heat up, Central Coast startups bet on digital literacy as the real driver

On Monday, Uber’s robotaxi lobbying effort put it on a collision course with Waymo, yet a handful of Central Coast startups are quietly raising seed rounds for something less flashy: adult digital literacy. They argue the region’s tech boom will stall unless the tens of thousands of service, logistics and hospitality workers who keep the city running can navigate the platforms now governing their shifts, pay and benefits.

Why digital literacy matters this summer

The timing isn’t random. California’s new gig-worker classification rules, which took full effect July 1, require app-based companies to provide earnings transparency and scheduling tools that assume a baseline of digital fluency. In San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, community-college outreach coordinators say they’re fielding calls from housecleaners and delivery drivers who can’t complete the mandated online forms.

“We’re building a two-tier workforce,” said Maria Torres, executive director of the Central Coast Digital Equity Collaborative, during a roundtable at the SLO HotHouse on July 10. “The people driving the robotaxis have engineering degrees. The people cleaning them, or fixing the charging stations, often don’t own a laptop.”

Torres’ group, a coalition of 17 nonprofits and two community colleges, is piloting a mobile classroom that parks at the Santa Maria Town Center every Saturday. The van, equipped with 12 Chromebooks and a Starlink terminal, served 84 adults in June, more than double the April tally. Most learners ask for help with job applications on Indeed or completing Lyft’s driver-verification process.

Startups see an opportunity

At least two early-stage Central Coast startups are trying to bridge the gap programmatically. SkillLane, based out of the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, closed a $1.2 million pre-seed round in May. Its mobile app offers short video modules in Spanish and Mixtec, a nod to the region’s Indigenous farmworker communities, covering app navigation, digital payments and phishing awareness. CEO Elena Rivas told a June 24 pitch event at the Madonna Inn that 40 percent of the app’s 2,300 active users are over 45.

TaskBridge, a San Luis Obispo startup founded by two former Amazon warehouse managers, launched a pilot in March with Goodwill Industries of Santa Barbara County. The software pairs gig-economy workers with human “task assistants” who help fill out profile setups and tax forms via WhatsApp. Goodwill’s job-training director reported last week that 68 participants in the pilot completed their first gig within 14 days, compared with a 22 percent completion rate for the control group.

The approaches differ, but the founders share a core conviction: autonomous vehicles and AI chatbots will widen the skills gap, not shrink it, unless basic literacy catches up. “Uber’s lobbying war with Waymo is about who owns the road,” Torres said. “The real fight is who owns the on-ramp.”

What happens next

Both SkillLane and TaskBridge are applying for a slice of the state’s $22 million Digital Literacy Innovation Fund, which opens for proposals on August 1. The Central Coast Digital Equity Collaborative plans to expand its mobile classroom to Paso Robles and Lompoc by October, pending a $150,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation. Meanwhile, the Santa Maria Public Library has agreed to host free weekly workshops starting September 12, no Chromebook required. Just a willingness to learn how the apps that now run the region actually work.