[falcolas]

Personal experience has shown that Ubers will in fact pick up folks who hail them, you just have to then set up the ride via the app afterwards.

Found this out while waiting an hour for an uber driver - three others drove by and responded to my waving them down to see if they were my uber, and offered to take me (looking back, I should have taken them up on the offer).

This, ironically, turned me on to the taxi system in NY. They were just more reliable at the time.