As AB5 takes effect, Uber added features in California like allowing drivers to be favorited, in its apparent attempt to claim that drivers are independent
The ride-hailing giant launched a new version of its app for its California drivers, its latest attempt to push back on a new law aimed …
Context & Ripple Effects
Uber's AB5 defense has been running on two tracks since September, when it argued drivers aren't core to its business because the platform hosts multiple marketplaces (its contractor position). Days before the law took effect, Uber and Postmates sued California claiming AB5 unconstitutionally targets gig companies (the lawsuit).
The new California driver app is the product track of the same strategy: a favoriting feature that lets riders build relationships with specific drivers, generating in-app evidence that drivers set their own customer relationships rather than working under Uber's control.
First-order effects
- California drivers get a favoriting feature and a redesigned app whose explicit purpose is evidentiary — every rider-driver relationship it records supports Uber's independent-contractor position.
- Uber's litigation and product teams are now coordinated: the app update arrives while the company's suit against the state is pending, giving courts a live demonstration of driver autonomy.
Second-order effects
- Lyft faces pressure to ship matching independence-signaling features in California, since any gap between the two apps' designs becomes an argument that one platform exercises more control than the other.
- State regulators gain a new evidentiary surface: app design itself becomes something the labor test turns on, raising the cost of every feature decision Uber makes in California.
Third-order effects
- The pattern held: by June the state transportation regulator formally classified Uber and Lyft drivers as employees anyway (the regulator's ruling), and by July Uber let Southern California and Sacramento drivers set their own fares (fare-setting) — concessions that concede the control question rather than win it.
- If classification fights keep being fought through product design, gig platforms will increasingly ship features for their legal effect, not just their user value — making app roadmaps a function of labor law.
The trend: Gig-economy companies are responding to worker-classification laws by redesigning their products into legal exhibits, trading user experience for arguments about driver independence.