Why Uber's Disruptive Innovation Should Concern All Of Us

Uber is a contentious company--no doubt about that. A big question these days is whether as a driver one is employed by Uber. If drivers for Uber are employees, then they are entitled to all the benefits that come with being employed with a company, which, by the way, they're currently not getting. If they are self-employed drivers, then that is a totally different state of affairs. 

According to The Guardian, the lawsuit brought against Uber argues that the company has used double-speak or "forked tongues" to attract drivers and prospective ones to join the company under the guise of 'employment' with a company. Uber claims it's a "technology company," not a transportation provider; and that they attract 'partners' who have a "commonality of interest" who are seeking flexible hours. And while in a 2014 response to Transport in London (UK) Uber claimed it could  “generate tens of thousands of jobs in the UK” through job centres throughout London, what they now mean by jobs is--if you can clear your head from this obfuscation--"an ‘economic opportunity to earn money’," according to Jo Bertram the Uber's UK General Manager. 

This is the problem with disruptive innovation: not only does it disrupt conventions of practice (in this case, becoming a certified taxi driver and working for a taxi company) it also disrupts people's paradigms; and when the disruption causes people to be confused about their livelihood, what sounds like a cool disruptive idea reveals itself to be more destructive than people may have thought. 

In addition to the lawsuits brought against Uber, the tech/transport company has revealed it will be using self-driving cars in Pittsburg within weeks--a move that will reduce its drivers to rental objects. For in order for a self-driving car to be allowed on the streets it must have a human being behind the wheel. The driver doesn't have to do anything other than make sure the car stays on the road and doesn't veer into pedestrians and vehicles. Some Uber drivers are complaining the company knew this all along, while others are concerned they will be left out of a job. Up until now, Uber has been a source of income. Some Uber drivers are in between jobs, while many others are using it as their sole form of income. 

This is just the beginning of how self-driving cars are going to disrupt society as we know it. There are so many jobs currently wrapped up in the transportation industry. A tech company comes along, and suddenly jobs are mere "economic opportunities," and drivers as mere "rental bodies" used to oversee the algorithms of a machine not operate it.  

And transportation is one industry among countless that will continue to push humans out for the primacy of machines. In the coming months and year, we will see the emergence of more technology companies providing services that have been maintained by humans for tens if not hundreds of years. They will be much like Uber: disrupt an industry, upset people, prevaricate on simple facts, spin-doctor statements to shareholders and media agents. They will appear cool and disruptive and hip, but will shake up entire industries, leaving ordinary working people out of more and more jobs.