>This happened much less frequently in the past as it would ruin the taxi company’s reputation.

Are you sure about that? I remember taxis being notoriously unreliable before Uber was around.

It seems like that's a major reason Uber took off - passengers could actually see the car was coming, rather than placing a call and just praying the driver didn't pull a no-show.

Anyways, I don't think either of us have anything beyond anecdotal evidence so it's hard to say.