Before Uber was founded I lived Upper Market in SF -- and it was impossible to get a cab to come to my house. I would call and they just would never show up. I started calling and ordering multiple cabs in a shotgun approach to getting a cab. I travelled extensively and my flight was always early on Sunday Mornings (because I was crossing time zones and had to leave at such a time to consult all over)

The cabs still wouldnt show up, so I made friends with a bunch of personal Black-Car Drivers in SF and had their numbers directly and would coord trips from my house to SFO before hand (17 miles) - I would pay then a set fee including tip.

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Once, I got a cab from my house to SFO and it was $65. for 17 miles, and a 30 minute wait.

I was flying from SFO to LAX. My plane ticket was $99.

450 miles, @~500 miles per hour or such. $99. 6AM Sunday. no waits, no hassle.

17 miles from House to SFO, @~30 MPH, 5AM sunday. 30 minute wait. $65 dollars. (2010/2011?)

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Then Uber was born. I have never used a taxi in the greater bay area since.

Fuck taxis.

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That being said - Uber & Lyft are not without faults.

Uber was run by a C-Suite of douchebags. The product was valuable, but the culture was toxic.

That has not changed - rather than actually being a better company, they are simply constantly attempting to cover up for the fact that they are douchebags... and thus, their platform as a business model (the drivers) is collapsing.

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Here is the biggest PR debacle with Uber that goes un-reported:

They attempted to have a lottery for a secret party night where you had to attempt to book a ride to this "party" and you may or may not be let in... and you had to keep trying and they would havea driver pick you up and deliver you to a secret party spot, with a special DJ and special drinks! YYAYAYA!

Well - not so fast punk.

The lottery was bullshit and had many problems where people were accpected, then the driver rejected them, and all sorts of other failures...

Then, (I was one of the "lucky winners") they were able to pick people up and rather than carrying them off to some super-cool-secret-party location, they had a mediocre half-assed "party" at Harlot in San Francisco -- where after going through the gauntlet of disorganized Uber Drop-offs (the drivers were just as confused as was the inept marketing group at Uber) you were still put into a line as if it were a regular lame club in SF.

They attempted to charge a cover, but backed down after people pushed back based on this "contest" to come to "secrete party"

Then the special drinks? They were $12/drink... You WON this lottery to go to harlot as if it were ANY other night in SF... the inside of the party was an utter joke - the uber employees were uber-douchebags; stomping around like they were in charge of some super important event and had no time to talk to you and what not...

But here was the worst part: Those fucking douchebags had ~1,000 people come to this club harlot, attempted to charge them for cover, then charged them the same price for everything as if it were any other night that one might go out, fight over getting a spot in the app lottery -- but when it came time to go home:

Uber didnt plan for that!

So they had 1,000 users standing on the sidewalk, EVERYONE LOOKING AT THEIR PHONE trying to schedule an Uber home...

These fucking morons didnt have the forethought to make a fucking ROUND-TRIP BUTTON in the app which said "pick me up here. Drop me off there. Pick me back up and take me back home at THIS TIME."

So their system crashed and all their coked-out "PR/SocialMedia" douchebags ran around unable to answer questions because they were too busy sucking their own PR dick.

Fuck Uber.