>>I'm pretty sure Austin's goal was to protect the taxi magnates by putting their competition out of business. This is pure nonsense. The fingerprint requireme

>>I'm pretty sure Austin's goal was to protect the taxi magnates by putting their competition out of business. This is pure nonsense. The fingerprint requirements are nothing new. Taxi companies have been following them for years. Uber and Lyft simply did not think they should be treated as taxi services, and threw a hissy fit when the City of Austin decided otherwise. Furthermore, Uber and Lyft were not "put out of business." In fact, they continued to operate in Austin for two years after the law was passed. They left only when they failed to repeal the law. Also keep in mind they spent over $8 million on the public relations and lobbying campaign to get the law repealed. So yeah, make no mistake: they have plenty of money, and the only reason they left was as a way of saying "fuck you" to Austin.