Insurance: 2400 / yr (guesstimate, maybe lower) Miles driven per year: 50k [1] Cost per mile (Incl depreciation) = 0.26$ [2] Cost per year to drive = 0.26 * 52k = 13520 Total = ~$16k per year in post tax earnings.
(Assuming numbers above still work ) Min 21$ / hr = 43,680 Minus taxes = 40,175 Minus driving costs = 24175
post-tax income per month ~= $2k
Assuming a single driver lives outside the immediate SF area, "commutes" to work, and shares an apartment, it's enough to survive. There's plenty of other jobs that pay less, so it seems unfair to target Uber on this number. You can expect to get by temporarily or make a bit of extra cash with Uber, but it's not a long term career for a driver - but I expect most drivers know that already.
[1] https://ride.guru/lounge/p/how-many-miles-do-uber-and-lyft-d... [2] https://bizfluent.com/how-5914430-compute-depreciation-based...