It's amusing that various local taxi regulations, which Uber and friends have long decried as being unfair, inefficient, outdated, etc. are pretty much the sole reason taxi pricing is transparent.
Not only transparent, but predictable: you don't have to read the fine print on each individual taxi to figure out if this particular fellow is charging you something absurd. That's something Sweden has run into with its deregulation of taxis: http://www.thelocal.se/20120425/40476
The gist of it is that some independent taxi drivers will legally post prices about 20x the going rate. Of course nobody who both knows what they're doing and reads the price will take such a taxi. But the business model / scam is to snag just a handful of clueless rides each day, especially targeting tourists arriving at Stockholm Airport. Then rack up huge profits on a small number of rides. It helps that tourists arriving at the Stockholm airport typically: 1) don't know what the going rate for taxi service is; 2) don't have an intuitive conception of what prices in Swedish Kronor mean; and 3) don't know how to quickly locate and read the posted prices.
I don't think it's fair to lump all taxi regulations together and then say Uber is decrying regulation. I doubt Uber cares about transparent pricing regulation. They've always shown the fare breakdown on the website and in the app. You can also estimate the fare for locations in the app and website: https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco There was some initial complaining about using a phone with GPS to meter the ride, but I think that was just chaff from entrenched interests.
If the initial cost to start a taxi was low enough (i.e. medallions were used to vet the driver and not to protect existing taxi companies [0]), competition might arrive at transparent pricing anyway. Especially with e-hailing where you can be more selective about the cab you choose.
Er, what? The Uber pricing is listed right there in the app, in the same way that taxi pricing is listed: base fare, per-mile fare, and per-minute fare. And if surge pricing is in effect, there's even an extra tap-through step that tells you what the multiplier and final costs are, and asks you to confirm that it's ok.
There's even a trip cost estimator in the app that you can use by telling it your destination.
When the trip is over, you get an email receipt with the total time and distance with the charges listed, as well as a map with the route drawn.
I'm not sure how you can get more transparent than that. What else are you looking for?
Some of those taxi regulations are easy to implement and generally a good idea. Some of them are merely protectionist schemes designed to maintain an oligopoly.
Thank your for your informative and thought-out rebuttal.
Every taxi I've ever ridden in clearly lays out the initial charge, how much distance is included, how much additional distance is charged, how much idle time is charged, and any additional fees.
If you've never been ripped off by a cab driver in a strange city, you either haven't traveled very much, or you've led a very charmed life. (Or you have been ripped off, but you didn't realize it.)
That's really useful if you know what the distance is to your destination off the top of your head, or know that the driver is taking the shortest route to it. Also useful if the taxi driver actually engages the meter, or doesn't claim that the credit card reader is "broken." The idea that taxi regulations somehow make pricing transparent or predictable is completely divorced from reality.
Failing to engage the meter is easily observed by the passenger. Credit card readers have nothing to do with this discussion, and are clearly just you being whiny. That price list I discussed is posted precisely because the law requires it.
Accepting payment by credit card is one of those regulations taxis in SF find unfair and inefficient, and so flaunt regularly. So, from that perspective, I think it's germane.
I've also had drivers in SF smoke, refuse to give me a ride, and try to charge me extra fees, all of which are, AFAIK, against the law.
Fortunately, the law protects you again in this case. In NYC (and SF too, I believe), if the credit card machine doesn't work, and the cab driver doesn't tell you before you start the ride, you don't have to pay a dime.
