I was in a European city new to me at an event where the planners assumed that Uber and Bolt where the only taxi options people would use. I asked for a taxi phone number, called and had a car in 5 minutes. That's much quicker than the account signup, and leaks much less private data. Taxi apps are not more efficient, horrible for privacy, and their business model is based on building a monopoly. I guess fancy UX in the apps really hooks people, or I'm missing something
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/robotaxi-car-technology-traffic-18362647.php
@eighthave cheaper rides cause no call center or office fat costs, also drivers do not unionize, controlled pricing agreements between multiple firms do not happen.
@sergii Actually, when you look at the economics of ride sharing services, the services with apps like Uber/Lyft/etc are not cost competitive with the telephone-based ones. Software developers and servers are super expensive, call center operators and phones are not. The business model of Uber especially avoids competing on efficiency. They take lots of VC funding to build a monopoly, so they can squeeze the drivers to the minimum possible wage.
