Notice that in my comment I said "invest in figuring out" and not "pay drivers with." personally I doubt that it would cost a half billion dollars - that's farcical even at California scale. But the point Id raise is it costs less than 180 million to reorganize and set up insurance coverage for your drivers, payroll, and other internal infrastructure to comply with the law.

But complying with the law is antithetical to Uber's culture, so it's not surprising that the thought of obeying the law never crossed their minds.