Uber was found liable of "apparent agency" if you are interested: https://legal-resources.uslegalforms.com/a/apparent-agency

If Uber can be held liable for driver's actions then Tesla can be held liable for "Full Self Driving" cars that aren't.

https://archive.ph/5wF6Z

Drivers are only independent contractors due to poor employment policy from Uber. They work for Uber, therefore Uber do have a duty of care to the users of their service. Now some may say that they only provide the platform similar to Silkroad, however the key difference is that the drivers are representing Uber, in Silkroad's case the sellers were not representing silkroad.

If Uber wish to be seperate from those drivers, they need to provide the customer the chance to choose the driver, and have an appropriate review system.

Judgment for 8.5 million

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41...

Is this the first of many to come

No idea how you can hold a company liable for the crimes committed by employees, regardless of how awful those crimes might be. I assume this will get overturned.