Maybe the American taxicab market was especially dysfunctional (the stuff I read about NY taxi medallions suggests that somehow), but in other countries, this "

Maybe the American taxicab market was especially dysfunctional (the stuff I read about NY taxi medallions suggests that somehow), but in other countries, this "inevitability" came about, largely without Uber's involvement. In Germany for example we can easily hail taxis (actual ones, not private cars) with at least two or three different apps, and this has been a thing for almost a decade now, even though Uber never really got its private-car-based service on track here due to legal problems. I've used Lyft in the US a few times, and the experience with those taxi apps in Germany is very much comparable.