> (no more cancellations for a better fare)
Wouldn’t be so sure about that. The operating company will still be trying to maximise profits after all.
> Any brand loyalty will evaporate literally overnight as soon as someone launches a driverless ride service
This argument only makes sense if a driverless ride service can be launched overnight. Driverless rollout will take many many years. The slower the rollout and patchier the service availability, the better off the TNCs are.
I don't think they are. The cost savings on using driveless cars for taxis are huge. Any operator will be able to massively undercut the competition. Consequently the most sensible thing for whichever company gets a level 5 driverless car first would be to run their own ride company and not sell or license the tech to anyone else. That's what Waymo is all about and why Uber are trying to invent their own driverless tech.
Any brand loyalty will evaporate literally overnight as soon as someone launches a driverless ride service simply because it'll be half the price of all the other human-operated services, far more reliable (no more cancellations for a better fare), and probably have many more cars available 24/7.