Maybe I'm a cave person but to me just waving to hail a cab or just entering the first car in line at a taxi stand seems much more convenient than having to fiddle around with a mobile app and wait until it arrives.

Now, admittedly, the app I use most often is stunningly ugly and has almost zero features, but it -does- have the feature of 'reliably producing a taxi when I type my name and location into it' and so long as that part works I don't really care much about anything else.

(in several areas of .us I've found that the taxi experience is "call them, one might turn up at some point" so I can see uber's tracking of the car as it approaches to be a welcome security blankie for people who've been traumatised by the local taxis)

The only really interesting value add to Uber was app-centric interactions (as opposed to a phone call), giving the ability to pay by card (instead of cash), and to track the taxi in the app.

Many local taxi firms are using apps too, so those advantages are gone. If this plays out the same in all geographies then Uber has already lost the taxi game.

Now, lots of randoms dip into the high season using these apps. No longer profitable for the taxi to operate year around. So for the locals there is no longer a reliable taxi service most of the year...

Not in the slightest. One of the biggest problems with normal taxis in Shanghai is that they won't stop if it's raining. And it rains all the time. I don't suddenly need a taxi less if it starts to rain; if anything, I need one more.

I remember calling cabs multiple times in Southern California suburbs and waiting for hours only for them never to show up.

Taxis essentially didn’t exist outside of downtown/airports. Ridesharing apps were a revolution, not that I’m defending their practices here.

I mean, I guess it worked for me.

They make a loss on every ride, but don’t worry they’ll make up for it in volume!