[lucasvo]

I can agree with what you're saying though I want to share an anecdote from Moscow where there is pretty much no regulation and pricing varies by car company. Instead of having a meter you negotiate the price in the beginning.

To help users out with ordering cabs Yandex released an app that actually let's you order cabs and shows you pre-negotiated prices, you can pick whichever one you like (economy, premium, luxury). They include user ratings and some sort of due-diligence for taxis to get accepted to their network.

But apart from that, a Lyft-like system has existed in many cities for years. In Moscow just holding up your hand on the side of the street prompts anyone to just drive over to the side of the street and offer you a ride. Most of these are full-time or part-time drivers, but also people getting home from work who don't mind a small detour for a bit of extra cash. At a fraction of the price this is the most popular way for people to get around, although some cars look like they date back into the USSR era.

This is a perfectly acceptable scenario and I think with modern technology the market will start to regulate itself.

[pifflesnort]

I can share an anecdote from the reverse perspective. When traveling in Morocco, I didn't speak any local languages (eg, French or Arabic). I also was entirely unfamiliar with the city, the distances between points, or even how much something should cost. If there was a Yandex app, I wouldn't have known about it (... although the last time I was in Morocco predated smart phones by about 10 years).

This meant that negotiating a price was pretty much out -- I paid what they asked, and had no real way to gauge whether that was reasonable other than asking a local. I also had no recourse if they overcharged -- what was I going to do?

Information asymmetry is a potent weapon for taking advantage of people, whether it involves taxi rates, or just how clean the restaurant's kitchen is, or how fresh the ingredients are. This is why we have regulations that attempt to provide some of the symmetry required for fair exchange.

[ShabbyDoo]

"This is why we have regulations that attempt to provide some of the symmetry required for fair exchange."

In the case of Ebay, Uber, Airbnb, etc., technology can replace regulation as a means of providing power to the previously disadvantaged party. And, technological solutions almost always are more efficient than the regulation they replace.