[RodoBobJon]

The prevailing theory is that Uber currently controls the customer relationship for ride-hailing, and that inertia will carry them forward.

I personally don't see it. Uber has already begun being disintermediated. For example, ride-sharing is already an option in Apple Maps on iOS where Uber sits alongside Lyft and any other ride-hailing apps on your phone, price comparison and all. You can also hail a ride with Siri. As a rider, why would I care whether my ride is dispatched by Uber or Lyft? I only care about availability and price. At some point in the future, I probably won't even need to install a competitor's app on my phone; I'll ask Apple Maps or Siri to get me a ride and it will dispatch a car from whichever service is faster and/or cheaper.

Uber has a plausible route to winner-take-all dominance as long as ride-hailing remains a two-sided market, where competitors have a chicken-and-egg problem in recruiting drivers and riders. But self-driving changes the game.

[usrusr]

> I only care about availability and price.

If Uber reached the critical mass of creating gridlock almost exclusively consisting of (idling) Ubers, an idling competitor two blocks away would not win the availability metric for your next ride. Unlikely to happen, except maybe in a few particularly overrun city centers, but that's one way they could do it. (Can't think of a different one, I don't believe that they will win their bet)

[skdotdan]

Well, they could try to have the monopoly in the self-driving technology, but it seems implausible.