tenminuteslater

Why do you think you couldn't contact a self driving car? It would certainly be possible to build some AI that can handle "special instructions".

Hockey sticks come from low friction. Subscription models are just plain tougher -- people have to put in a credit card and pay real money for the service. You just don't get exponential increases in that type of a situation (cue counter-example).

The business models that lead to hockey sticks are anything where the initial use is free to the user. Essentially, how Google, Facebook, and Twitter all started. They can use advertising to monetize that growth, and eventually ancillary paid services (Google Drive storage for example).

Uber is not even the middle layer here. The middle layer is an as-yet nonexistent aggregator that will search all of the services (Uber, Lyft, Google, Amazon, whoever) to get you the best price for your ride at that moment.

This would seem to be a classic example of a distinction without a difference.

No need to be patient. You only have to wait two days.

I'd argue that some of the people who fall into "too many people with guns" referenced in paragraph 3 are cops...