[...] according to the company, its drivers are not workers atall - they are"consumers" of Uber's technology serivces, just as passengersare. [...] Uber's lawyers exlained thatthe company's drivers are actually customers of its software. "Fundamentally, the commercial relationship between these drivers and transportation providers andUberisonewhere they are ourcustomer, where we licenseto them oursoftware, and we receive a fee for doing that." [...]

[...] Uber's employment model was born in the so-called sharing economy, a social technology movement that capitalized on the economicinstablity of the Great Recession to sell a narrative. [...]

[...] frame their technologies as powerful engines of job creation. [...] While society may benefit from automated work, the fear is that these benefits will not be distributed equally: jobless futures imply some will get left behind. This threat isnot an inherent characteristic of technology but, rather, comes from the current Americaneconomic climate. [...]

[...] Silicon Valley has a stroke stake in national debates over whether automation technology, such as self-driving cars, will take all ourjobs. Universal basic income is one form of "automationalimony" that is proposed to relieve the rising inequality often attributed to automation.

To join the Uber driver workforce, prospective drivers download the Uber driver app onto their mobile smartphones. They then take their Uber-eligible vehicles to local mechanics to be certified as in good working order and upload their driver's license numbers and autoinsuranec pplicy numbers to their accounts [...] afte cosenting to a background check that takes under a week in many places, they're ready to go [...]

Silicon Valley carries the banner of "technological exceptionalism", the idea that the regulations and laws that apply to their industry competitors or predecessors do not apply to them for the simple reason that they identify primarily astechnology companies. These tech giants reason that the technology services they offer to achieve a familiar goal (lkemoving a passenger from A to B ina taxi) are qualitatively different from the actions that these laws were designed to govern. [...]

"I went through college throughout my adultlife," he reflects, "I didn't just go get it. I started when I was twenty-two. I would go to work, and I would have to quit school sometimes and work more hours. It took me about ten years on and off." With three children to raise - a daughter who is eighteen, and two sons, fifteen and ten - going to school full time wasn't an option, though he hopes his kids will go awayto college and do it all at once, for the experience. About hsi degree, he adds, "It hasn't helped me very much yet."

Michael's extended efforts to obtain a degree from a for-profit college give me pause, because it's an indicator that the established paths to middle-class life in America aren't working for him. [...] The rise of useless college degrees is a clear signal that the established systems of social mobility have failed in Ameria, and the gulf of oppurtiity is part of what makes jobs in the sharing economy appealing. Technology in the sharing or gig economy is framed as an intervention in the declining pathways toward upward class mobility.

[...] Michael articulates the desire to truly be his own boss, and he enjoys the indepdendence he has as an UBer river that he didn't have in a previous job at a factory. He is grateful to have this job during a period of career transition. However, he may find himself working against higher commissions and rate cuts that UBer implements unilaterally. When the conditions of work change for UBer drivers, many hew closel to Uber's suggestions to work at particular places at particular times to earn premiums o their pay, effectively giving up some of their independence to work on a schedule that is subject to frequent changes and few guarantees.

[...] There are three important categories of Uber drivers: hobbyists, part-timers, and full-timers. Hobbyists are drivers who, quite simply, don't need hte oney. Part-timers need the money but don't or can't work full time for a variety of reasons. Finally, full-timers are just that: people whose primary income is driving for Uber, some of whom put in significantly long hours. Most drivers work part time, but a minority are pulling long hours as full-time drivers [...]

[...] Lyft's 2018 report also fofers a city-by-city breakdown of driver statistics, and itstates that in New York City, 91 pecent of drivers work fewer than twenty hours per week - but that may simply reflect the fact tat drivers who work full time are giving someoftheir hours to local competitors, like Uber, Juno, or Via. [...]