[Tagbert]

I suspect that a large part of the current ridership of these services would be less than thrilled about grabbing a ride from a random stranger without the level of oversight provided by Uber/Lift in terms of payments, safety, and service levels.

[tgflynn]

My objection to your argument is that taxis and other car services existed long before Uber and Lyft, usually with some level of safety supposedly being provided by government licensing requirements for drivers.

The big problem with taxis is that they're inconvenient to use. You either have to take a chance at hailing one or call a switchboard, having no idea in advance of how long it will take to get picked up.

Uber/Lyft's platform largely solved the inconvenience problem, they could have offered it as a service to existing taxi companies/drivers without getting involved in all the regulatory issues.

[lotsofpulp]

>My objection to your argument is that taxis and other car services existed long before Uber and Lyft, usually with some level of safety supposedly being provided by government licensing requirements for drivers.

And people preferred Uber/Lyft’s oversight versus the taxi services that existed before.