That's not limited to Uber. Plenty taxi companies in the EU offer that exact service through their app. All it takes is 5 minutes of web search to figure that out. It's probably a good idea to prepare a bit before entering a country you're foreign to regardless, transportation would be the first thing I'd search for.
> Just because Uber is a shitty company doesn't mean national ride-hailing services won't and can't work.
And the legislation put in place isn't preventing any of that.
This is why I use Uber. I don't have to do any of that. No stress. Just land in a country and get an Uber to my hotel. Walk out of a museum and get an Uber to my restaurant. It's easy. No thinking. THAT is why Uber is successful and those local apps can't replace that.
There's an inflection point where the "no stress" mentality goes away, and Uber might be headed there. It certainly isn't headed away from it.
I was in Germany recently and compared the fares quoted by both Uber and mytaxi apps and Uber came out to be cheaper by at least 5 euros on multiple occasions.
I also have moderate social anxiety when I'm on the phone, which is doubled when the other person is impatient or rude. And the few times I've had to call a taxi, the dispatcher has not made me feel very welcome. It's a lot nicer to be able to call a cab and not have to talk to anyone.
Ride-hailing services going back to being locally restricted companies would destroy all of that, so I'm hoping that won't be the case. I don't want to have to guess who to call, I want to put in an order and have it delivered to me. Just because Uber is a shitty company doesn't mean national ride-hailing services won't and can't work.