This plus the news that Waymo is starting its autonomous ride-share service next month is a one-two punch for Uber this week. Might be one of the largest unicorns to die in our generation.
They made a choice to lose money and grow rather than break even and slow down.
From what I recall, Uber is profitable in New York and San Francisco. Uber failing would probably involve them being bought by a private equity firm and cut back to servicing those cities.
Being acquired is still a long ways off when they still have this insanely high imaginary valuation.
Even if a taxi company would pay for lead gen, how many Uber customers would stick around when introduced to statutory taxi prices?