Something something rose-tinted glasses.

You could schedule in advance. Now having them actually show up? That was debatable. lol

Hand to heart I’ve had more Ubers not show up (more than 5) than I did car services over several decades of NYC living. Worse they claimed I didn’t show up.

I would posit that New York city is probably the best example you could come up with in the United States. Pretty much everywhere else Uber is supreme

I don't live in New York City, but when I was there Uber was the absolute best option for our use case, because they were the only option that allowed us to ask for a toddler carseat as an extra. It was a game changer and preferred that over taxis and other car services.

The first Uber I ever ordered was after I had scheduled a car with one of these services and it didn't show up.

Since they aren't taxis, car services can charge enough there is no such thing as a low profit route for them.

In cities, there were were either no taxis around in certain neighborhoods, or they simply would not come at all even if you called and asked the taxi company and the dispatcher told you they had sent a driver. Both of these I experienced personally.

> In the suburbs and exurbs, probably less so, but this is where everyone has a car as a prerequisite for living [...]

Sure but that doesn't work very well for when you want to spend the weekends drinking. The cities in the US that have grown the most over the last 10 or 20 years are still very much suburban and lack good public transportation. The lack of low cost and convenient transportation services quite literally resulted in fatal accidents.