Could you share some specific information to substantiate this?
I frequently hear this statement on Hacker News, and (as far as I can recall), every time I've asked for a source or evidence for the claim, I have not gotten a satisfactory answer.
Black car services where you arrange pickup with a specific driver ahead of time have always been regulated differently than taxis. Uber has cars that operate as taxis, and they're properly licensed.
The burden of proof is on the person making the claim. If someone wants to claim that Uber is breaking the law or has broken the law, then it should be relatively simple to explain what that law is and provide some evidence that it's been broken.
I'm not looking for flawless proof, suitable for a court of law, just some kind of cogent allegation of what happened and what law was broken would suffice. These kind of vague claims about Uber breaking the law do nobody any good; they are middlebrow mud slinging.
Here is an example of what a cogent allegation might look like: "Zenefits broke the law by allowing salespeople to act as insurance brokers in seven states despite lacking the licenses to do so." [1]
Has Uber broken the law? Who knows? There have certainly been accusations that Uber tried to sabotage competitors by placing fake rides, for example. I am not trying to make any kind of moral claim about Uber, so please do not misunderstand. I am simply to hear the evidence from people who make comments like "Uber evades local regulation".
From my casual research into the matter, no, black car services or any kind of private, pre-arranged transportation for hire are not considered taxis in most municipalities. Uber actually offers taxis in certain places through UberTAXI [2]. The key difference seems to be whether the trip is arranged ahead of time through an existing business relationship, versus whether it might be solicited or formed directly on the street at the beginning of the ride. This seems to be how law works in most places in the USA, anyway. If you know of examples of municipal law where it works differently, I'd be glad to hear the details.
Could you share some specific information to substantiate this?
I frequently hear this statement on Hacker News, and (as far as I can recall), every time I've asked for a source or evidence for the claim, I have not gotten a satisfactory answer.
Black car services where you arrange pickup with a specific driver ahead of time have always been regulated differently than taxis. Uber has cars that operate as taxis, and they're properly licensed.