In Istanbul, we call those cars "taxis".

Among my greatest shocks when I recently visited the states, were the inability to get beer delivered to my home, or easily find a cab just by walking to an intersection.

Taxis in the US depends greatly on the city. I live in a small town, the taxis are for the people with no license (DUIs) or who can't drive (elderly/infirmed). No one else uses them and they aren't practical to catch (you have to call them to pick you up). But in downtown Indianapolis last summer I had no issues catching a cab at least until 9 or 10pm (I wasn't far from the hotel after that time). Boston was a similar experience a couple years back. Atlanta and Raleigh seem to be like big versions of the small town I'm in now.

Computerized dispatch and autonomous cars make the idea so much more efficient as to be a different business model than taxis, though.

Often times you can get beer delivered from your home if you order pizza delivered as well and tell them to tell the driver that you'll tip him well for some beer. It's not economical so it's really not a good option unless you want the pizza anyway and I think the legality is typically questionable at best (liquor/beer laws vary greatly state to state).

You can also often order delivery from grocery stores (Amazon Fresh and Instacart well known for this, but in my experience most grocery stores run their own delivery businesses that you can ask about.) If the grocery store is permitted to sell beer (they are not in some states, such as Pennsylvania) then they will typically happily deliver you beer if your total order is over a certain dollar amount (typically $50 or so).

Also, just about anywhere that beer is sold in the US, you can get a keg delivered to you. Of course most people don't want a keg unless they're having a party.

Istanbul is a city. The 'states' is a country.

Just to expand on that, Istanbul isn't even a state (though it's a very large and important city). The USA is a federation of states, with a multifaceted legal framework and also the biggest single-country economy in the world (EU is bigger, but isn't as tightly connected or managed).

Would the comparison of Istanbul to New York City be more appropriate?

> Istanbul isn't even a state (though it's a very large and important city). The USA is a federation of states

Which has more political pull, New York state or New York City? NYC isn't even confined within NY; the Chinese system of "cities of a certain level of significance are their own state-level entities" seems to make much more sense (to me) than the US model does.

Eventually somebody gets tired of drawing new borders on maps.

I used the term 'states' too loosely, it seems. Specifically, I was in Baltimore, Washington DC, St. Louis, Chicago, NYC, Burlington, VT, and Madison, IN, on that particular visit. I hope this satisfies the detractors that feel I was speaking too generally of 'the states'. I was optimally able to get to and from most cities by bus, train, and airplane. However, in none of those cities was I able to optimally find a taxi (meaning, right when I needed it). Notable exceptions included NYC (from Penn Station, but not to it) and DC (though that doesn't really count, because I drunkenly boarded a taxi waiting for someone else when leaving the Capital lounge).

Usually, I would have to call a cab or use Uber. That's fine, but it seems different from the "just need a car when I need a car" observation that invited my quip.