I'm pretty sure I don't get any "social signal" from using fancy taxis. I think you've got to own the vehicle for that to happen.

Much like buying a museum ticket to see a famous painting isn't comparable to owning the same painting.

Some museums do try to frame memberships as something that is part of one's identity. A museum in my city sells annual memberships with a physical card with nice artwork on it, discounts on tickets (including a discount for a friend), and an invitation to a monthly evening event at the museum that is rather quite nice.

I haven't seen Uber or Lyft effectively go down the route of having their service be a part of a user's identity. But Waymo could make an effort, if they wanted to: they use a distinctive car model, and they could offer incentives to make carpooling with Waymo cheaper (to try and make a user 'known' in their social circle for using the service).

If that were true, I don't know how you could explain the persistence of town car and limousine services.

Really? Aren't town cars nicer inside than regular cabs? Limousines tend more in the direction of conspicuous consumption, though I imagine they are also generally more comfortable/clean than less-expensive options. Limos are also not that expensive for some use cases: we once had to get 8 people from NYC to MD, and it turned out that renting a limo was cheaper than us all taking the train or renting a vehicle.

> generally more comfortable/clean than less-expensive options

Some limos have poor or blocked views of the outside which can trigger motion sickness. I also wonder about their side impact protection and how much testing that gets.

Likely that is a factor, but people communicate social status and identity in so many different ways, which often appear meaningless or even absurd to people outside their perceived peer group, that I think it would be a mistake to discount the idea. (I recall one person I used to know who certainly did have opinions about the kinds of cars she would and would not prefer to be seen arriving in, regardless of who was driving or who owned the vehicle.)

Ironically, the actual Lincoln Town Car has been out of production for years.