[jjmarr]

I spoke with an Uber driver about this recently, and one of Uber's barriers to entry is their phenomenal data on roads. As an example, they know for every apartment complex, where you'd drive around inside to drop off food as oftentimes you can't just go to the front. Or which parts of a road have no stopping zones along with the schedules. Bus stops too. And the app will guide you to get a pickup where the Uber driver is actually allowed to stop.

Drivers are interested in those features because it makes them more efficient. And having a critical mass of drivers is what makes it possible to get a ride in a few minutes. There are other upstarts, but they don't have many drivers, and your potential user market doesn't scale linearly with drivers because nobody wants to wait 30 minutes to get a ride (even with crazy discounts).

[blendergeek]

I am an Uber driver. I'm sure they have the things you describe in some places. Where I am, the app regularly tells me to drive off the side of a bridge because it believes there is an at-grade intersection in a highway. Despite my repeated reports of the issue, it persists. All the Uber maps in my area are at least 1-2 years out of date and are nearly useless for navigation. I pretty much ignore them a lot of the time.

[vel0city]

This was one of my experiences with Uber versus some other ride hailing apps. The Uber app seemed to understand the airport and would help guide me towards a pickup zone and help me relay to the driver what pickup zone I was going to be at, while at least last time I used them other ride hailing apps tended to just try and show wherever I was at the time.