That's because Uber is an infrastructure project that just happens to be VC-funded instead of taxpayer-funded. Uber is targeting the taxi industry and delivery

That's because Uber is an infrastructure project that just happens to be VC-funded instead of taxpayer-funded. Uber is targeting the taxi industry and delivery services. Their competitors like Lyft have too small a vision. Lyft doesn't want to replace taxis with self-driving, they're focusing on making the standard taxi ride experience nicer than usual. Uber has a service for delivering food, their competitors are courier services who do food delivery, in-house delivery drivers, and apps that let you pre-pay for takeout. Uber's vision is bigger than just delivery of food, it's for delivery of damn near anything. This is why Jeff Bezos invested in Uber; Amazon is looking at using drones for delivery but why do that when you have a stable of drivers (and self-driving cars in the future) that can do deliveries? Basically; Uber's competitors are still focusing on their little niches and not willing to be the infrastructure for getting person/object A to place B.