In my city Uber was worlds better than the taxis it replaced. Before Uber, you would call taxi dispatch and give them your address. If you were lucky, the drive

In my city Uber was worlds better than the taxis it replaced. Before Uber, you would call taxi dispatch and give them your address. If you were lucky, the driver would show up at that address, within the wait time the dispatcher gave you. He (always a he) would rarely take credit cards too...better plan an ATM stop into the ride. Now that's in my home city. I cannot be the only one who got scammed by a taxi driver in an unfamiliar city when they took a deliberately circuitous route to the destination. Lesson learned: never tell the driver its your first time in <city>. If asked "is it your first time in <city>" tell them, "no, I come to <city> monthly for business". I am not justifying Uber's sleazy behavior, both internally and with their poor vetting of drivers early on. But the taxi industry in the mid 2000's was just asking for disruption.