U.S. Judge Rejects Uber’s Proposed $100M Settlement with Drivers
So it&#x27;s murky with Uber, as far as classifying the drivers as independent vs employees. On one end, the drivers work their own hours, own their own car, and are &quot;kinda&quot; their own boss. On the other, they have to go through mandatory training as part of their job, have to keep minimum hours on the platform to keep their job, can&#x27;t solicit tips, and don&#x27;t have as much freedom to decide to decline a passenger (as far as I understand Uber will lower their internal rating if they don&#x27;t accept passengers, so they&#x27;re penalized when they&#x2F;lack freedom to decline a passenger).<p>I don&#x27;t know all of the specifics, but from what I&#x27;ve read Uber is taking more control from the driver than what a normal employer employing an independent contractor does and it really is hard to argue that they&#x27;re fully independent contractors. There is the argument that there should be a third classification for cases like this because the employment law is outdated, but generally speaking, I would be surprised if this goes to jury that Uber would win even with their amazing counsel. If they lost this lawsuit, their main business model would be severely hurt (fully driverless cars are not realistic for multiple reasons in the next 3-5 years, let&#x27;s not kid ourselves) and their valuation would take a big hit. Uber has an uphill battle with this if they have to go through the entire process, and has a lot at stake.