As others have also mentioned below:
- Uber is global, and has a standard interface. I don’t have to fiddle with credit cards and the payment dance. It’s the de-facto global “taxi”. Kind of like the warm homey fuzz one feels at a Starbucks in a foreign land after enduring burnt coffee served in a styrofoam cup on a long flight. (Granted, a bourgeois American-centric view, but I hope it’s illustrative.)
- If you pay a premium (Uber Comfort and higher), the cars are better, the drivers are better (higher rated too), and one can communicate preferences such as temperature and conversation (no, thanks).
- Other long-tail uses: 7 passenger SUVs for large groups, lots of luggage, etc.
- I’ve tried using the taxi apps (Flywheel, etc.), and they’re atrocious/geographically limited. In some places the Uber app can now call taxis. Even then, I’ve never voluntarily wanted to call a taxi for the last decade or so. I especially like the Black Mirror vibe of drivers and passengers having a “rating”. ;)
Uber is a hassle-free experience and saves you from dealing with the one miserable human being you'll encounter that day. Stress has a price.
Drivers are rated and you can cancel if you're handed a bad one.
A large part of Uber is also the rating model. I don't know if taxis have that, but at least for LGBTQ passengers it makes a huge difference. You can't harass your passenger and keep a good rating.
Unfortunately, it traded one kind of monopoly for another.
Ideally, Uber would have been an app and a network that taxi companies plug into.
This product existed, and was profitable until Uber drove them out of business with rides subsidised by VC money.
My complaint would be the exact opposite of yours: taxi drivers often have a few tricks up their sleeve while Uber drivers will follow Google Maps straight into a traffic jam.
They managed to drag our cab companies into the 21st century without even being active almost anywhere, so thanks for that ;)
But in South Africa? Taxis are extremely expensive cars that often look as if they’d fall apart any moment. Uber was/is cheaper, but I’d have taken them even otherwise. Most certainly a premium service.