Lyft used to be Zimride but Zimride was absolutely nothing like what we call rideshare today. More like a slightly more codified, less sketchy version of CL rideshare.

Fun fact, I was an early and enthusiastic user of Zimride (for making a long distance relationship work between the Bay Area and SoCal). I liked the product and once upon a time drafted an e-mail applying for a position there. I assume I would have been employee like ... 5 or something. Never sent it and it hung out in my Gmail for many years. Decisions, decisions :-)

Uber (Founded March 2009[1]) created ride sharing in SF before Lyft (Founded: June 2012[2]). Uber just started with commercially licensed Black Car drivers and Lyft started with anyone with a car and a drivers license. Then Uber moved down market with UberX and Lyft moved up market with Lux.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyft

I think this is just a matter of semantics. Are you saying we should call a black-car hailing service "ride sharing" simply because you booked it with a smart phone app rather than calling a number? (Remember that Uber didn't even use a novel business relationship; there have long been dispatchers with a single phone number that distribute the rides to multiple independent black car agencies.)

To me, the key change deserving a new term was allowing completely independent, non-professional drivers, and I think Lyft beat Uber to that. (Heck, some purists would say "ride sharing" should be reserved for cases where the driver doesn't make an wages, just reimbursement for costs.)

Sidecar beat both Lyft and Uber with people using their own cars. It launched in September 2011.

Uber launched UberX in June 2012. Lyft launched in June 2012.

Give Sidecar credit where it's due.

I'm happy to, and in fact wasn't giving anyone credit for being first. I was just trying to point out that Lyft beat Uber.

Zimride was founded in 2007.