> 3) Only tourists and transplants believe using an app is in any way better than simply hailing a cab (with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)
Spoken like someone who never leaves Manhattan. ;-)
For those who don't live in an "outer-borough", the way you obtained car services was by dialing a phone number, talking to a dispatcher, trying to communicate pickup and dropoff locations through the fog of accents, and then you have a 25% chance of the car showing up when promised, a 75% chance of it showing up no more than 15 minutes late, and sometimes 2-3 additional follow-up phone calls were required.
If I'm going from tribeca to the east village at 11pm, sure, I'm taking a cab. But if I need to come home from New Jersey, being able to press a button and get a car is a huge convenience.
That was my first thought as well.
For those who don't live in an "outer-borough", the way you obtained car services was by dialing a phone number, talking to a dispatcher, trying to communicate pickup and dropoff locations through the fog of accents, and then you have a 25% chance of the car showing up when promised, a 75% chance of it showing up no more than 15 minutes late, and sometimes 2-3 additional follow-up phone calls were required.
If I'm going from tribeca to the east village at 11pm, sure, I'm taking a cab. But if I need to come home from New Jersey, being able to press a button and get a car is a huge convenience.