Homelessness? Check. Drunk driving fatalities? Check. Domestic violence? Check. Abusive monopolies on single-person transportation? Check.

Uber operates primarily as a taxi service with an app

Ride sharing is a non-core feature called UberPool, which lets users share Uber taxis with other users.

If you don't want to lump them in with taxis, they're a car service with contract workers. That's all they are.

I regularly see people say they’ll call a cab and then use Uber/Lyft.

Ride sharing generally means carpooling/picking up hitchhikers etc. Where the driver is going on the route anyway and is adding passengers for HOV access, gas money, or just conversation. https://rideshare.org/

Uber’s initial intention was carpooling where someone would put in their intended destination and could pick people up for money. However the business model clearly switched to a taxi model with a paid driver not staying at the destination. They still wanted to call it ride sharing because what they where doing was often blatantly illegal

PS: Their initial subsidized prices convinced many people to advocate for an exception which was often granted. That’s the bit that’s rarely talked about, they essentially bribed the general public.

This entire debate and court case is between Taxi's and Uber, because they're competing by providing essentially the same thing.

The passenger clearly doesn't care if the person driving them from A to B is using a company vehicle vs their own vehicle. Ride sharing is a silly name, as you're not really sharing the ride if the driver isn't going to the same place are they.