In California, most cities are very spread out so taking taxis anywhere are super expensive. You can't just hail one down on the street like other cities, you have to order one over the phone to come pick you up from where ever you are.
What's the availability? I.e. are you actually able to get a ride within 10 mins in SV, for example? How about rest of California?
I decided to check for myself and registered in the app. The nearest ride is in 20 minutes (about 2x from the rideshares) and the price from my house to SFO is about $160. My last ride with Uber was about $70. Make your own conclusions.
Oh yes and the app is buggy as heck, losing internet connection all the time (on my home wifi!) and getting stuck in random places.
I mean, one conclusion is that Lyft and Uber are not charging enough to continue to operate.
They were stopping operations not because they couldn't afford it. But because the courts and lawmakers banned their whole business model.