IMHO, this is serious misunderstanding about Uber's business model. If we use the hotel industry as an analogy, Uber is more like Priceline than Airbnb: Airbnb brings hundreds of thousands of spare bedrooms to the market to compete against hotels and these indie bedroom owners are not subject to many regulations that are applicable to hotels. On the contrary, Priceline links existing established hotels to consumers. Uber is just like Priceline in that - unlike lyft and sidecar - it does not introduce new kind of offerings to compete against taxis and limos, or runs over existing regulations; instead, it merely connects existing limos and taxis to existing limo and taxi customers. The cars and drivers are still subject to existing regulations, and customers safety are still protected under exactly the same regulations as that of those who hail a cab in traditional means. All the speculations about "legitimate questions" in parent comment are merely speculations and smell too much like FUD.
> The cars and drivers are still subject to existing regulations,
Is this not what Uber's crying about? You want to have it both ways?
> and customers safety are still protected under exactly the same regulations as that of those who hail a cab in traditional means.
Not at all true. For one, Uber is using unapproved and therefore possibly fraudulent measuring devices. Again, you can't have it both ways: you can't both complain that existing regs are stifling Uber and need to go, and also that customers are fully protected by existing regulations.
> Uber is using unapproved and therefore possibly fraudulent measuring devices
Just wanted to jump on this. Black cars in NYC are not metered, they literally make up random prices. Protip to visitors: negotiate before the trip, not after!
Anyway, Uber couldn't possibly make this situation worse.
