> If I am being driven somewhere I certainly care about what condition the car is in.

Right, so sounds like Uber sensibly wants their representatives on the street to project their desired corporate image.

Thus, employees.

> This isn't a reasonable comparison. Your shitty laptop or OS was likely not part of the product

If a client hires me to build a web app, I get to decide how, when and where it is built. That means I get to choose if I use, say, Django or Rails on the backend, and maybe React on the front end. These are certainly part of the product.

> If a client hires me to build a web app, I get to decide how, when and where it is built.

No thats not really true, for all cases of contracting.

I, as the client, could absolutely tell you to use rails, and if you don't use rails, I can "fire" you the contractor.

Sure, some clients might not care. But some would care, and they can tell you want to do, and control what you use, and not work with you if you don't do what you say.

That is not necessarily the case. The client may well have restrictions on what technologies you use, especially if they are to run and maintain it after you have built it. This probably is considered part of the product.

But you and the client negotiate and come to an agreement or decide not to do business. If you fail to come to an agreement with many clients this may affect your reputation, but no central authority will ban you from talking to future clients.

If I started "Daniel's Ruby Shop", collected money from clients, and paid it to you if you made Ruby websites that met standards I set, and required you to Skype me at specific times or forever be banned from "contracts" you're not an independent contractor, you're my employee.

The contractor and client would negotiate those terms.