Please explain why you think the cab companies would have used this software. What incentive do they have, when they have a monopoly? To improve customer service? Why would they care about that? They've never demonstrated that they care about customer service at all. Uber/Lyft aren't going to give their software and service away for free, and cab companies aren't going to pay for something they don't need unless they're forced to by the government (which was in their pocket).

Uber/Lyft did the only thing they could: an end-run around the taxi cartels.