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California vs Uber vs AI
Will Artificial Intelligence make the Uber Employee vs Contractor debate a moot point?
As the Democratic Presidential candidates try to stake out a position about the Gig Economy, Uber may turn out to be the “Poster Child” of this debate. And this issue is much more complex and will have deeper consequences than the question of “Is an Uber driver an employee or a contractor?”.
Uber is openly embracing driverless cars. This is being driven (pardon the pun) by Artificial Intelligence (AI). They are also motivated because some states are trying to make drivers employees and not contractors which makes drivers more expensive. Accountants have said for years that you should remove repeating costs from business processes. This can take many forms but one of the easiest is human labor. So a driverless Uber car that only requires an initial investment and minimal maintenance costs, when compared to driver wages, makes sense for their business model. Other hidden benefits also surface like the fact that a driverless car cannot decline a fare and create more idle time. AI can always route the car for a pickup that can arrive the quickest or use less fuel or whatever is needed to optimize profit without human thought anomalies or complaints. It will do the same when picking the route to the destination … again without human thought anomalies and more concrete data like traffic patterns…
