1) 'Disruption' is just a code-word for skimming margins in legal grey areas
2) The founder of Uber's twitter avatar used to be the cover of "Atlas Shrugged" (update: it's now a picture of Thomas Jefferson.)
3) Only tourists and transplants believe using an app is in any way better than simply hailing a cab (with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)
No idea why this company ever deserved my trust in the first place.
You don't get taxis very often. From my experience in Chicago. They're everywhere you want them to be. There are huge dead zones for taxis. (Webster/Clybourn, Grand/New Orleans, Western/Armitage anytime before 6pm, Humboldt park, 5am in Old Town [4am bars have a 5am cut off in Chicago on Saturdays]). They tend to be either: a. on the phone the whole freaking time speaking Hindi or b. blasting music.
They also tend to pull shit like: "Oh my CC machine is broken, please give me cash" (which is against the ordinance), they'll try to use their square payment reader instead (which is also a big no-no), etc.
Uber cuts that out. With Uber, despite my bad experiences, they're consistently better.
I'm pretty sure the OP was only referring to NYC.
And even then, only Manhattan. Uber and the like have made it a lot easier to book private cars, though it's difficult to know what the green "Boro" taxis would look like if the apps hadn't launched.
Spoken like someone who never leaves Manhattan. ;-)
That was my first thought as well.
For those who don't live in an "outer-borough", the way you obtained car services was by dialing a phone number, talking to a dispatcher, trying to communicate pickup and dropoff locations through the fog of accents, and then you have a 25% chance of the car showing up when promised, a 75% chance of it showing up no more than 15 minutes late, and sometimes 2-3 additional follow-up phone calls were required.
If I'm going from tribeca to the east village at 11pm, sure, I'm taking a cab. But if I need to come home from New Jersey, being able to press a button and get a car is a huge convenience.
+1
"New York City" is not synonymous and interchangeable with "Manhattan below 96th St".
I also, just last week, took my mom to the hospital lying down in an Uber SUV which was (even at the 1.5 rate) a whole lot cheaper than an ambulance, and more convenient even than their own car which we would have had to get out of the garage and then park at the hospital.
I reckon services like Uber are a good way to shake up the in-inefficiencies and built-in-slackness that accumulates within a protected service industry. There is absolutely nothing stopping the "real" taxi industry adopting apps and tech services to counter Uber -- in fact they would be way ahead in other more "background" aspects such as insurance, vetting drivers, heck, even brand name awareness among the general public. For example, we had taxi companies put out apps here in Australia long before Uber. In my experience they have been about 90% reliable (this was in the early days) and I'm certain they have improved now. And the taxi companies definitely have the pockets and data to drive this.
Once the shake-up is complete a set of equilibrium should be established -- as services like Uber would also be forced to implement proper checks on drivers, etc. At which point the idiots spouting off $18 billion figures should wake up from their dreams.
Sure, you can hail a cab pretty easily most of the time in NYC, but I've definitely had enough times where I've had no luck (they were all full) after waiting 10 or 15 minutes that I now prefer Uber.
I think using the app is justified b/c there are way more bad times/locations than good times/locations. If I'm outside in midtown I'd probably grab a yellow cab, but otherwise it's either subway or uber.
Let's also not forget that Uber started as Ubercab and was forced to change their name. I don't think they ever intended to be a limo service, and their current product offerings are largely not limo services.
I've heard that the bonus of London black cabs is that they have super knowledge of London.
I've found this to not be the case. Sure, it's good. But in all honesty I find google maps to be better.