Does Uber pretend to be not a taxi? At least in the UK, they are just a private taxi company with an app instead of a phone number, and their drivers are licensed taxi drivers.
Uber should not have been buying cars for their drivers... but if Uber is to be forced to have employee/employer relationships - then Uber's value of freedom to choose working hours goes out the window, as they now can mandate working hours... and surge capacity is literally annihilated.
I'm not (in these posts, I may elsewhere) passing judgement on why they did it and if it were right, only stating that it is what they did.
The US taxi system in most cities was an abusive cartel holding on to a market solely through a government protection racket, and that's the nice description of it. Uber and Lyft destroyed the cartels, delivering a far superior service.
As for the superior service, I'm not sure that will last once the VC funding runs out and these companies have to actually turn a profit. Uber/Lyft is MoviePass writ large.
So now I pay 3x more to have an experience often shittier than cabs.
Got out after 2 blocks (a few seconds after she hit “unpause”)
And were hailed as "disruptors."
Have you ever had to haggle about the cost of your trip with a taxi driver?
Have you ever ordered a taxi and one never showed up?
Have you ever missed your flight, because a taxi - that was scheduled to pick you up at 5AM just didn't arrive?
I used to do consulting work all over Europe and literally spent 5 years of my life flying every single week. Pre-Uber taxis were horrible! In fact, they still are!
Not to mention taxis refusing to serve minority neighborhoods. If you're actively preventing a significant proportion of your potential customers from using your service, you shouldn't be surprised if a competitor is able to swoop in and "disrupt" your business. (that's not to say Uber doesn't have their own problems with rideshare redlining, but they're certainly better than traditional taxi companies)