P. S. I have no affiliation with either Arcade City or Christopher David. Read about this effort here: http://www.vocativ.com/327333/a-world-without-uber-dispatche...
arcade city is a great example of unintended consequences -- instead of safer rides, austin's regulations led to consumers choosing a much riskier ridesharing option (no GPS tracking, no recourse when something goes wrong, no background checks at all, etc)
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2016/06/21/austin-cra...
http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/06/dwi-arrests-skyrocket-...
As I understand, they had an experimental phone application. They took down support for it, and are building a next version.
Uber/Lyft claimed that since their services began, DWIs in Austin had dropped by 23%. They have since risen about 7%.
Seems like Mothers Against Drunk Driving needs to get involved with Austin politics so that Uber and Lyft can again operate there. How many deaths will have to happen before Austin decides to not be more stringent than NYC, Boston, LA, Chicago, ....