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Comment by ganfortran | Hacker News Reader

> On the other hand, maybe people aren't actually that bothered about which particular ride company they use

Which is indeed the case here. Why people would prefer one to another? Cheaper, or more drivers or both. Brand? Simply don't care, and Uber at this point has a notorious one. If there is demand (from both drivers and riders), I guess it take several months short to fill in the void Uber has left there.

I think ride-hailing service is meant for local companies to excel(public relations, better communication with government and compliance with regulator), Uber simply cannot enjoy the level of monopoly Google and Facebook have, because at its heart, it is not a tech-driven business.

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I use national ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft as a traveling consultant for the same reason my grandma eats at McDonalds when she goes on vacation: I know exactly what I'm getting every time I make the call. Every city has different taxi regulations; can I step into the street and hail one? Do I have to call one? Which company should I call? Can I trust them? The locals might know the answer to this, but who can I trust to ask at the airport?

I also have moderate social anxiety when I'm on the phone, which is doubled when the other person is impatient or rude. And the few times I've had to call a taxi, the dispatcher has not made me feel very welcome. It's a lot nicer to be able to call a cab and not have to talk to anyone.

Ride-hailing services going back to being locally restricted companies would destroy all of that, so I'm hoping that won't be the case. I don't want to have to guess who to call, I want to put in an order and have it delivered to me. Just because Uber is a shitty company doesn't mean national ride-hailing services won't and can't work.

> It's a lot nicer to be able to call a cab and not have to talk to anyone

That's not limited to Uber. Plenty taxi companies in the EU offer that exact service through their app. All it takes is 5 minutes of web search to figure that out. It's probably a good idea to prepare a bit before entering a country you're foreign to regardless, transportation would be the first thing I'd search for.

> Just because Uber is a shitty company doesn't mean national ride-hailing services won't and can't work.

And the legislation put in place isn't preventing any of that.

Same problem, now there are hundreds of apps to learn to navigate through. Some might show you a map some won't, some will have bugs, hidden fees etc.

>All it takes is 5 minutes of web search to figure that out. It's probably a good idea to prepare a bit before entering a country you're foreign to regardless, transportation would be the first thing I'd search for.

This is why I use Uber. I don't have to do any of that. No stress. Just land in a country and get an Uber to my hotel. Walk out of a museum and get an Uber to my restaurant. It's easy. No thinking. THAT is why Uber is successful and those local apps can't replace that.

Except you won't be able to do that in Denmark anymore per the article that this thread is about. And there's a number of other places in the world where Uber does not have coverage. Uber doesn't even tell you where they are, so you get to find that out when you get off a plane.

There's an inflection point where the "no stress" mentality goes away, and Uber might be headed there. It certainly isn't headed away from it.

Uber seems to be adding far more cities than subtracting. Just 2 years ago you couldn't use it as a world-traveling app, and now it's the closest thing to a universal taxi the world has.

You've to download the app and then hope that they are in English. If they are indeed in English you've to create an account and add your credit card information before you can call a cab.

I was in Germany recently and compared the fares quoted by both Uber and mytaxi apps and Uber came out to be cheaper by at least 5 euros on multiple occasions.

Actually I mean just within my own country. Taxi services in Madison are a lot different than ones in NYC, which is a lot different from Nashville. I wasn't even considering a language barrier.

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