This is in line with what I've seen in London - suffice to say it's easier and cheaper to get a car around London than it's ever been, the only people losing ou

This is in line with what I've seen in London - suffice to say it's easier and cheaper to get a car around London than it's ever been, the only people losing out are the black cab drivers who used to profit from what amounted to a monopoly on certain journey types. Specifically: 1. Black cabs hailed on the street have a set (very high) price, only pre-booked cars can be cheaper. Uber and others are "just in time, pre-booked" services and so cheaper. Here, Uber and others are creating competition and improving the functioning of the market. 2. Uber have at least 4 (popular, at least with people I know) competitor apps in London - Hailo, GetTaxi, Kabbee and Addison Lee. All do similar things with their own take (Hailo finds black cabs with their extortionate prices and supposedly better service, Kabbee is an aggregator for many local and often very cheap minicab companies - but with highly variable service levels, GetTaxi I think is similar to Hailo and Addison Lee is a private car firm who employ a lot of drivers and have been around since long before Uber). All are vying for customers and responding to the competition with deals and pricing improvements - another sign of a healthy market. 3. The algorithms appear designed to find the most profitable sweet spot at any given time to keep prices as high as possible while minimising spare capacity - that's sensible and how any company should (and do) act. Even if it's irritating when surge pricing is in play, it's completely reasonable. I have 4 of the above taxi apps installed and pick the best one for each job - which often turns out to be Uber, so good for them. Bottom line - you can never rely on one company to create a competitive market but if anything, the attention and lobbying Uber has brought to the sector seems to have created a fairer market and benefited consumers.