I'm an on-and-off Uber driver. It's a great gig to supplement my income. As someone who has many limitations from a disability, it's almost impossible to find a job that classifies me as an employee. I just don't get hired. And I need to take a break when I need to take a break. I can't have someone dictating my hours for me.

In my city, which fortunately is not in California, being classified as an Uber employee would destroy my 10-20 hour weeks at $20-$30/hour. The key is to work during busy times and for $30+/hour you generally have to be entertaining to get tips (which I have tons of fun doing). If you work during slow times, then it's $10/hour or less.

Busy times are too nuanced for a manager to determine when the best time to work is.

And I don't want to subsidize other drivers with my hard work because they don't want to do the market research to know when to drive.

Maybe Uber can keep all the incentives the same (like surge) and classify drivers as employees, but I doubt it.