[crispyambulance]

Traditional taxi companies are now increasingly employing 3rd-party apps which function much like Uber's. In many US cities, the "Curb" app will hail you a regular taxi cab and allow you to pay for the whole thing through the app (including tip, even if you just happen to hail the cab without opening the app).

Uber's long-game, and the reason they've been funded so handsomely, is the autonomous taxi plan.

Its a pity that taxi companies were so slow to adapt to Uber by providing convenient ways to summon and pay for a cab. All that people really want is to get from point A to point B without a hassle.

[pjmlp]

> Its a pity that taxi companies were so slow to adapt to Uber by providing convenient ways to summon and pay for a cab.

Have you ever picked a taxi in Nordic countries?

Those guys already had Uber like apps and all possible ways of paying for a ride, before Uber was a thing.

[crispyambulance]

Never, but not surprised. How is Uber doing in Nordic countries?

[Nekorosu]

Talking about Sweden Uber is just another taxi company here. It's not possible to provide taxi service without having a license. Uber has to comply. Still it's more convenient to use their app because it has better UX than everything else on Swedish market.

[gtirloni]

Which isn't hard to replicate or improve upon. Is Uber fighting the local government in Sweden to have less regulation too? It seems that's what they are doing here (Brazil).

[Nekorosu]

I don't think so. They have already lost one legal battle and it's really hard for a corporation to lobby the government due to a lot of reasons: trade unions involvement, prevailing social-democratic mentality, one of the lowest levels of corruption in the world (4th place, probably related to the mentality). , (social-democracy and one of the lowest corruption levels in the world).

[martinp]

Uber remains illegal in Norway as all taxi drivers need a permit granted by the government. The subject is under heavy debate though.

[pjmlp]

Not sure, my last trip there has been around 2012.

[debaserab2]

I have yet to see one of those app's come even close to replicating the experience that uber brings. It's one thing to have an app, it's another thing to have a well designed app with consistent policies that are followed the same by every driver.

Any time I've had to use an uber clone apps (from a traditional taxi service, not lyft) they haven't instilled a lot of confidence in me to how reliable they are.

[erroneousfunk]

> consistent policies that are followed the same by every driver.

This was the most amazing thing about Uber, to me. I live in Boston and used to take cabs all the time pre-Uber (still take the occasional cab from the airport). Cab drivers are rude, frequently claim the credit card machine is down (despite violating city laws saying they're literally not allowed to drive with a broken CC reader), take the long way / detours to run up the meter, air conditioning or heating might be broken, the cars are dirty, no real recourse for bad service. Even if they have a GPS, drivers refuse to "waste time" by typing in your destination address and require turn-by-turn directions. I'd call a cab and it was hit or miss whether they'd show up or not. I even had a cab driver threaten to call the police when I didn't have cash after he tried to claim that Boston was "cash only" on Saturday nights -- and he was driving me to my HOME in the South End, so it should have been pretty clear I wasn't a tourist unfamiliar with local laws.

Even with the most well-designed and reliable app in the world, cab companies can't compete with Uber -- it's the service and consistency that really made it take off.

[debaserab2]

Yep, agreed. I've literally been hijacked and taken to an ATM before by a cab driver who clearly had a VISA sticker on the window of his car. While uber seems pretty evil these days, I just can't risk the unreliability of traditional cab services.

[crispyambulance]

Although I admit the UX of Curb is not as seamless/slick as Uber's, it is certainly usable enough and given time the kinks will be worked out.

IMHO it was a small price to pay for deleting my Uber account.

[erroneousfunk]

Do you think cab drivers have gotten better since Uber came out? I only take them from the airport occasionally now, but the biggest thing about pre-Uber taxis was the service issues.

[gtirloni]

As I've learned while participating in these discussions is that all of this is HIGHLY localized. The issues you have with taxis and/or Uber will not make sense in other places with different regulations, better apps, etc.

Almost every regular/licensed taxi I take here, the driver has Uber/Lyft/99Taxi app running simultaneously so they can reach more clients. In that case, it's the same quality of service as before (which is just fine where I live, so Uber/Lyft aren't disrupting anything here).

[cstejerean]

How much more time exactly? Curb used to be called Magic Taxi if J remember correctly and it's been around for more than 4 years.

[darkmouth]

True. Escaping the law, sexual harassment of employees and low wage to drivers aside, it will still make me feel very inconvenienced to see Uber go out of business. Not even Lyft comes close to how good and fast the Uber app is. I was sold the first time I used it. I just hope some other company steps in to fill in the void.

[ExactoKnight]

eCab in Vancouver is getting pretty close. The app's technology is all but reliable, but where the problems still exist are when demand is high and taxis (by the very nature of being limited) are unable to meet it.

[galdosdi]

I honestly never had a problem with the UI of

1) Dial a 10 digit number

2) Someone says "Hello, XYZ car service"

3) You say "I need a car at the corner of Sample street and 123rd road"

4) They say "5 minutes" and hang up

It takes the same or less time as using an app like Uber with fewer things that can go wrong.

[mcgrath_sh]

That was effective in cities with good (or any) taxi service. In Pittsburgh, Uber and Lyft have utterly changed people's ability to get around the city.

One Saturday night we wanted to go out to a place 10 minutes away. We called a taxi cab around 7:30/8:00. We were told that it would be between 2.5 and 3 hours for a cab, if one came. We were considered "out of the way" when we were a 10 minute ride from downtown/the main bar area in the city. Forget about getting a cab back from those bars. We used jitney cabs all the time to get home. Yellow cabs wouldn't bother or were too infrequent.

[crispyambulance]

I remember jitney's in Pgh !! In the 70's I used to ride in jitney cars with my mother to get back from the grocery store. In some cities, "jitneys" are called "hacks"-- unlicensed cab drivers driving their own cars. Perfectly safe if they're neighborhood folks that you know.

There used to be a similar/related practice called "slugging" as well, it seems to have faded as Uber rose up.

[galdosdi]

Great point -- ridesharing apps have genuinely contributed something important in areas that didn't use to have much taxi service. My point is limited specifically to big cities that already had decent service -- in those places, there wasn't a significant improvement brought by Uber and friends.

[planteen]

5 minutes would be fine. But sometimes it was more like 45 minutes to an hour. You wonder if a cab is ever going to show up. That's why I started using the apps - you know the driver can get in touch with you and you can see where the car is.

[crispyambulance]

Yeah, but you have to guess at which cab company to call and then dig up the number.

With the Curb app, your request goes out to multiple cab companies and you usually get a cab that is very close.

[watter]

For me this can be problematic in my second language, and near-impossible in my third, fourth, and fifth languages. I travel a lot and it is the only time I ever use Uber.