What's crazy is that any taxi company (and there are some large ones which have the resources) could have done this.

Then, after Uber launched, instead of jumping on the bandwagon and doing they same they instead dig in their heels and fought it. Only after it was too late did they attempt to do the same.

In other markets, they did. Where I live you need to have an appropriate license to transport passengers for money. Hailo brought the app approach to hiring taxi drivers. Uber now exists here, but all the drivers are actual licensed taxi drivers charging the standard rates. They did briefly try to "disrupt" the market here by ignoring those rules, but they got slapped down.

In Austin, they had a taxi app at the right time. The problem was that they were still taxis, and if no one felt like ever coming to pick you up, then you were just left high and dry. Uber told a specific person to come pick me up. Taxis would take whatever fare they found on the way to my house.

Not quite. There was a post on here that Uber's other big advance was the fact they don't own taxis and via demand pricing they incentivize more people to drive during high demand times. A Taxi company can't do that. They can't afford to own enough cars and hire enough drivers to handle high demand times as they'd lose money. Just adding an app to taxis is not enough

This is insightful.

I wonder how many SaaS products have the advantage of not having to talk to another human being. You don't have to align schedules ("busy signal"), convince them if they don't want to ("yes, I moved a block down, can you redirect the taxi please?"), and sometimes deal with a bad day.

> phone calls

This can make things awfully complicated when you and the dispatcher don't speak the same language.

> waiting around for a taxi to arrive

The worst part about waiting for a taxi is the dice roll of whether one will actually arrive. Often in the case of a popular spot (like after the end of an event) the taxi could pick up someone else from the same location - or worse yet, not show up at all. The introduction of feedback associated with a specific driver has completely changed the incentive to actually show up and pick up the correct person.

> dispatcher

I remember a lot of taxi companies used some funky phone-to-CB thing where the dispatcher would be talking to you over CB radio on your phone call, which was just rotten audio quality on top of any lingo barrier. Just hilariously awful.

> An Uber and a regular Taxi will both get me to my location with similar time and cost

I don't know how many places that was true. I gave up on taxi service in my city (Austin) a few years after moving here, because it wasn't a reliable or quick way to get anywhere. Twice I ordered taxis hours ahead of time to get to the airport (once literally the night before) and after being assured on the phone over and over again that the driver would be there "in just a few minutes" ended up driving myself at the last minute and barely making my flight. I also had a few treats of walking miles home after waiting 45 minutes for a cab to arrive. Uber was a game-changer simply because they would show up.

A regular taxi costs you the same as an uber? May I ask what country you live in?

In Australia, a taxi usually costs between 1.6ish - 2.3ish times as much as an uber or didi.

Don't forget the payment process - no tip to worry about, no conveniently "broken" credit card machines, costs and duration are estimated up front.