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Comment by fxtentacle | Hacker News Reader

Count me guilty then, because I am also hoping to one day take a nap while the car drives me around. Until then, I found the next best thing is booking an Uber. They'll even use venture capital to subsidize my ride :)

But wait, isn't that exactly why they are now in such a rush and cannot accept anything less than full autonomy?

From what I heard, Uber has been burning billions of VC money to capture market share. And their model just won't work financially if they need to pay drivers a living wage. So they attempted trickery to pay them less as "independent" contractors, but now that governments are stepping in to prevent that, there is only one option left:

Uber needs self-driving cars or else they'll go bankrupt.

At least, that's my theory.

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I'm not certain self-driving cars are going to save them. Right now, what they pay their driver's is the all-in cost for their fleet. When they switch to fleet Management, they are going to be paying capital costs and maintenance instead. I don't think the latter costs are much lower, if at all, than what they pay drivers now.

There is this other technology called "chauffeur"

And in the third world (e.g., Mexico), they are an order of magnitude cheaper than a Tesla.

> Uber needs self-driving cars or else they'll go bankrupt. > At least, that's my theory.

I believe it--at least, I hope it would take an existential threat to make them push kludged-together pedestrian-killers into use on the roads.

> So they attempted trickery to pay them less as "independent" contractors

An Uber driver is the very definition of an independent contractor. Many drivers also drive for Lyft. How can they be “employees” of Uber while also driving Lyft? Or doing Door Dash?

If Uber drivers were employees, they would have to work where and when assigned. As it is now, Uber drivers come and go as they please.

I am not sure how an Uber driver is any different than a freelance journalist or musician.

You are aware that people can have multiple jobs, right? It's very common for poorer people especially

And those usually have set, non-overlapping hours, even if those hours can vary from week to week. An Uber/Lyft driver can switch back and forth from ride to ride and has no set hours at all.

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