[jacquesm]

I'm of two minds about all this.

From a European perspective Uber, AirBNB and so on are a setback.

But in some (not all) cities taxi services are ridiculously expensive.

Some regulation of this industry is good, if Uber (and AirBNB for that matter) are willing to get their drivers/vehicles on the same footing as the competition and if they ensure that their contractors are not going to skip out on paying taxes and background checks then I'm fine with it.

The thing that bugs me is that the way both these entities position themselves they essentially leave others to hold the bag while they rid to riches and that's an issue. The new middle men are in that sense not better or worse than the old middle men, they're just different people.