Uber solves a problem in the US because the US government is failing to provide adequate public transportation and fails at properly regulating taxis.
In most other civilized places with governments that succeed in these areas, Uber just doesn't have product market fit. The legal problems are only producing noise.
Uber is much more efficient than taxis regardless.
For one, it uses the spare time and preexisting cars of regular people (which are cheap) and two, it has the algorithms and data to pool more than one person in the same car.
Uber is not uniquely positioned to pool multiple people in one car, to suggest otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous. Also there are no preexisting cars of regular people for Uber to take advantage of because regular people don't have adequate insurance.
> Uber is not uniquely positioned to pool multiple people in one car, to suggest otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous.
Of course they are, this feature is highly dependent on network effects and Uber is the biggest player.
> Also there are no preexisting cars of regular people for Uber to take advantage of because regular people don't have adequate insurance.
Besides the fact that most people don't give a shit about this, Uber does provide commercial insurance for UberX drivers while they are logged in: https://www.intact.ca/uber-ride-sharing
In most other civilized places with governments that succeed in these areas, Uber just doesn't have product market fit. The legal problems are only producing noise.