I wouldn't exactly call Uber a piece of innovation. It's a phone app for hiring taxi drivers from a pool of cheap labor. You want to claim innovation? Let's find the people torching self-driving cars.
There is a world of difference between "hiring X from a pool of cheap labor" and what Uber does. ODesk is hiring X from a cheap pool of labor. Uber is push a button and you get where you are going.
Fundamentally, Uber is a Walrasian auctioneer that solves the socialist calculation problem within the transportation sector.
Five years ago if I wanted to hire a car to pick me and up and take me somewhere I had to call a taxi company and pray that someone would show up 90 minutes later. Now I hit a button and someone is at my door in ~5 minutes.
Fundamentally, Uber is a Walrasian auctioneer that solves the socialist calculation problem within the transportation sector.
I consider that to be innovation.