I used to have those a lot, but I think Uber's eliminated a lot of the "off duty taxi drivers" in the last couple years. I used to get picked up by literal taxi cabs when I called for an Uber pretty frequently. Now, "marked, taxi, or salvage vehicles" are not allowed.

feels like it's city based. i definitely had bad rides on uber in nyc but only had great ones in sf.

in my own town, uber is light-years ahead of taxi drivers. to the point where my parents are using uber (and they are really averse to technology)

Yeah - I didn't mention it, but the variable that seems to drive the majority of the variability for me is "Where am I?"