| > When you hold up your hand, you have no information on the person pulling over to pick you up. You don't know the rate, you don't know the safety records, you don't know anything about the driver. [...] The consumer has very little choice. With Uber, I now know the rate. All the other points apply to both equally. And with metered taxis, I also know a rough rate. > With a car-for-hire service, I can investigate the car service ahead of time. Am I under an incorrect assumption that there are multiple taxi companies in most cities that are licensed to operate? How is this different than calling a dispatcher at a specific company (which afaik does not suddenly make the car that picks me up a car for hire). > Taxi companies and car-for-hire services have been regulated differently for 100 years. Were they wrong to have been regulated differently all along? Taxi companies (traditional) and car for hire (Uber) haven't looked this similar over the past hundred years, as everyone wasn't carrying a cellular and GPS equipped supercomputer around in their pocket. > The "get into a car with a total stranger with whom I have no commercial relationship" market is vanishing along with its regulations. That sounds a lot like Uber too. And this is why the regulations exist as far as I can tell: (1) safety, (2) awarding monopolies to prevent a race to the bottom that impacts (1), and (3) preventing your driver from using their position of power to charge you an unexpected / unreasonable rate. I'd also note that I haven't said anything about whether I think taxis or Uber should be regulated. I've just asked how they're different as each exists today. Nothing you've said so far makes me feel they are. |