But its cool, I'm sure tptacek has full view of their internal strategies and knows, for sure, that Uber hasn't tried at all to operate within Austin
I doubt that most of the attendees at SXSW (at least the interactive portion) are even locals. In fact, out of my group of friends (I live in Austin), none of them are actually attending the conference. Only two of them are participating at all, and they're just going to a few of the meetups.
Point being, I don't see this as an attempt to change anything in Austin. It's just promoting the service to tech people who live in areas that Uber actually serves.
I don't know how big the "taxi lobby" is in Austin, but I suspect that Uber could get the laws changed if they were so inclined considering that Austin doesn't appear to have that many taxis, at least compared to SF (which, from my experience living in both places, is far too few, but still considerably more than Austin). I just don't see this as being that attempt.
Do not say things like this. It is incredibly disrespectful.
However...
> If you're going to serve a municipality, put your chips on the table and slug it out for real.
I found this to be far more presumptuous and disrespectful.