I got a black cab a couple of weeks ago in London (it was chucking it down) near St Pauls. Asked to go to Nandos in Southwark.

The vaunted "knowledge" failed miserably as he pulled over to drop me off -- I looked up and saw we were just south of Tower Bridge. he clearly hadn't got a clue. I said "just take me to Southwark tube station". I know there's all sorts of one way systems but when he was heading to Bermondsey I just told him to let me out and got the tube (well tried to - Southwark was closed, so ended up at Waterloo and having to walk)

Uber just works because it's not based on a system from 1865.

> sure that's a bit outdated in the time of online maps

As a passenger I feel it's a significant qualitative difference if I have a driver who knows his way around town compared to one who obviously and fixatedly relies on the GPS.

Indeed, here in Belgium there are extensive requirements for taxi drivers in terms of certification, education and vehicle maintenance. That's one of the reasons Uber never really succeeded here - even as a "freelance driver", you still need to be qualified and that takes time and effort.

It's probably because it makes it difficult to dodge taxes when Uber registers all the transactions ;)

Last time I got a taxi in Belgium the card machine (advertised on the window) was "broken". C'est la vie, I just walked off.

Had that in Washington DC once, but magically the machine fixed itself when I said I had no cash and he'd have to get the police.

In London you can now report the driver if they're on the road with a "broken" card machine, as that makes the car considered "unfit".

A lot of drivers still use unapproved card devices, though (TFL points out handheld terminals are explicitly not approved, yet I regularly have taxi drivers insist their fixed terminal isn't working, and to use a handheld one), which I'm taking means there's assorted tax fraud going on.