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Comment by taysic | Hacker News Reader

From what I understand Uber is much more affordable than cabs on average which can make a big difference to people. In the city I live near, there used to be such a shortage of cabs, waiting for an hour as they drove by you or after you called was not uncommon.

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True. It should definitely work this way in dense areas with lots of potential customer base. And taxis definitely seem to be in sad state in many places around the world.

What I meant is that a regular taxi is obliged to serve a customer even in a more remote area of the city, while Uber can just ignore it. Similarly, taxi networks usually are obliged to have cars adapted to people with disabilities, which again increases their costs, but ensures there is service available for people with special need.

Based on all the Uber- and taxi-related threads I've read on HN before, in many jurisdictions, taxis are legally "obliged" to accept credit/debit cards, pick up non-white customers (common U.S. anti-discrimination laws), etc., yet they manage to find ways to consistently fail to do so without meaningful consequences. Is there any evidence that they actually fulfill their obligation to serve customers with disabilities?

Good point. However, I don't think there is any data collected in this regard (how many actually fulfill their obligation to serve customers with disabilities). At best we can, perhaps, get anecdotes from people who needed such a service and actually got it or didn't get it.

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