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Elementary occupations · code 9122

Vehicle cleaners

Vehicle cleaners wash, clean and polish the exterior and interior of vehicles. Tasks include - (a) cleaning, washing and polishing cars and other vehicles, by hand or using hand-held power tools; (b) vacuuming vehicle interiors and dry-cleaning carpets and upholstery; (c) applying cleaning agents to remove stains from vehicle exteriors and interiors; (d) washing tyres and wheel arches and blackening tyres; (e) washing and polishing vehicle windows; (f) emptying and cleaning compartments in vehicles. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Car detailer - Vehicle washer (hand)

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 2 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • vehicle cleaner

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

91.1
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 8.9 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 8.9 = 91.1

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

64
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

45.1
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 39.3 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 53 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 64 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 10, while the average is 8.9. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 10

    Applying cleaning agents to remove stains from vehicle exteriors and interiors

    Very Low
  2. 9.5

    Washing and polishing vehicle windows

    Very Low
  3. 9.5

    Emptying and cleaning compartments in vehicles.

    Very Low
  4. 8.8

    Vacuuming vehicle interiors and dry-cleaning carpets and upholstery

    Very Low
  5. 7.9

    Cleaning, washing and polishing cars and other vehicles, by hand or using hand-held power tools

    Very Low
  6. 7.8

    Washing tyres and wheel arches and blackening tyres

    Very Low

6 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
40
AI does it for you
11

Helping wins by 29 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 8111

Compared with similar jobs

There are 33 jobs in the “Elementary occupations” group, averaging 84.8. This one is above that.