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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

That’s a bit of spin right there. Taxi companies could never “invent something like Uber.” Meter and fare regulations precluded the use of smart phones instead of approved meters, and surge pricing (which allows Uber to offer cheaper rides most of the time and make up for it during periods of high demand). Huge amounts of VC money and ignoring taxi regulations allowed Uber to “invent something like Uber.”

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Taxi companies could never “invent something like Uber.”

Of course they could. All the regulations you mentioned are only there because the Taxi companies lobbied hard for them. Had they lobbied half as hard to have the regulations loosened they could have gotten any regulations they wanted. The taxi companies bet big on using regulation to entrench their position and avoid competition rather than on improving their product. History will tell if it was a good bet or not, but so far it isn't looking too good.

Taxi lobbied to mandatory approved meters? I think it was tax authorities not taxi that did that.

Do you have a source for your elaborate narrative history of taxicab regulation?

In reality, modern taxi regulations date back to the 1930s, when the prevailing view was that consumer protection was best served by a combination of limiting competition and government price regulation. This was all happening at around the same time as the government rate-regulated other transportation industries: busses, freight trucking, and airlines.

I intentionally said minicabs, not taxis, to head off this exact sort of argument.

They could have been changing these regulations years ago, instead they behave like a vegetable which is now being eaten.

I can't think of an example at this scale where that happened without the incentive of disruptive competition.

When did cab companies ask the regulators to allow cheaper ways of computing cab fares?

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