Which part is innovative? The business model of random people using their own vehicle and taxiing others or the app to coordinate dispatching?

I wholeheartedly agree the system wasn't great in many cities before Uber, but it's just a sleek version of what was obvious at the time--it just hadn't been built and the incentives weren't there.

I think you can look at bus/train systems as a comparison. In many cities you can download their app, set a destination, and it shows you what tickets you need to buy. You wave your phone to prove you bought your ticket. In many cities you can see the actual buses live on a map. Many bus stops show when the next bus arrives live. Uber was founded in 2009 and iPhone released in 2007. Google Maps was released in 2005, added traffic info in 2007, and Google Maps shipped with the first iPhone. It wasn't hard to see these pieces coming together--it just needed a lot of work, coordination, and a few generations of hardware and software improvements.

I do think they were the first and were innovative in a lot of aspects. I think their impact on the business of taxiing is way more "innovative" than the app and tech--but innovative doesn't necessarily mean "good" or a great use of resources.

To me, design and ease of use counts as innovative. Whether it was inevitable or not isn't particularly relevant.

As I said, if you had to regularly use cabs prior to ±2009, they were a nightmare. Uber is a massive improvement.

I wish people who dislike Uber as a service lived in places with bad cabs and bad public transit. Uber is a blessing for the user in such areas. Pricewise it is sketchy and likely unethical but on the service level it is 10x and well worth of existing. I am not saying that Uber as employer is good, but damn the service level blew me off first time I went to another city that had Uber.

Uber is far from perfect, but when they first started it was a very welcomed approach in contrast to the taxi cartels with their rude drivers who would readily decline your trips if it wasn't at their convenience.

sadly uber has declined quite a bit since- but it was a good kick in the butt to the taxi industries to step up their game.

Not that it disproves your point, but Edinburgh taxi service has always been in a league of its own. I have seldom seen one take more than 2 minutes to arrive, even in the days when you had to gasp telephone. I think there's some clever organization on the backend. Whatever makes Uber work, the whole regulatory-end-run driver-exploitation angle is not essential to it.

Yea, I can remember calling a cab to go out in LA, and then you would sit at the house with your friends for a half hour and hope it came.

Or in San Francisco, the cab would ask you where you are going. And if you said Inner Sunset, not even Outer Sunset, they would just leave.

In NYC though, you just walk out of your building, stick your hand out, and the cab would be there.

It is 1000% better in most places.

It depends where you are.

I've travelled in Europe and had good service just googling the number of a local taxi firm, and speaking to them.

I used Uber once, and they decided not to take my fare; they never showed up.