Wow, some people really hate Uber. 

“With the click of a button, Kalanick will completely destabilize and undermine African immigrant communities in Seattle,” Counterforce wrote. “Just as once he disrupted the music and taxi industries, now he can disrupt the lives of individual families. Dozens of cab owners are currently threatened by the unrestrained expansion of Uber, and if the company is allowed to discard any regulation, multiple families will lose a significant portion of their monthly incomes when Uber overtakes the smaller taxi services. In the cannibalistic utopia of the free market capitalists, this is the normal way of things. In their world, everyone must live on their knees so that the Uber Men may be great.”

Wow, it is understandable that some people really hate Uber. Uber destroys jobs.

You have to consider/admit: 

On the one hand:

Uber drivers necessarily own their own cars, and are thus of a certain strata/status/standing.  More often than not, in adopters of technology (just like MOOC), they are of a homogenous group who already has access.  In essence, Uber enables people with the luxury, finances, access, and standing to use Uber services (a post-smart phone community), to patronize people like them, thereby benefiting their same socio-economic class.  

On the other hand:

Uber enables normal everyday people to act as a taxi without having to swear fealty to a taxi company and use their vehicles, thereby democratizing the taxi jobs, ie. turning it to the free market where active participation and service is the only way to rise above the competition, no matter your race.

Except some people necessarily patronize other people of their same race, if not necessarily choose against a taxi driver that is ethnically unlike themselves.  

And in the case of Uber, you don't always see who they are, just what car they drive.

Those are good points.

I think there's something about the values of Uber -- I mean, it is a product for wealthier people -- that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

On one hand, there's people who are uppity and just wouldn't 'stoop' to taking a yellow cab, but are delighted to get picked up in a towncar or even just a modern car via a 'new' app and community.  I find this lot to be the same as the type that somehow are only interested in taking BART once they have the NEW fleet, which has been showcased (but yet to be integrated until 2017...).  These people either have high standards and require services that flatter them, or are douches.  I suppose lifestyle is lifestyle and everything is a reflection/projection.

On the other, 1) there are (lots of) women who view P2P car-shares as just a little safer and more assured than trying for and waiting for a cab on the corner by themselves. 2) Uber has opened people up, who might never have experimented with taxi-ing if not for the technological aspect and perceived convenience, which breeds a bit of non-physical involvement with and disconnection from their urban environment (never having to brave the streets to hail a cab, never needing to lift an arm or a leg).  3) Uber has also mitigated the built up aversion of taxi DRIVERs to picking up certain fares (whether they are men, how the person looks, or simply where they are going).  I know plenty of taxis that won't even take someone to the Excelsior, let alone Fremont - but there are Ubers who will.  Uber is a system that CROSSES regional jurisdictions and has drivers that don't care about the limits that taxis shy away from, and that's probably a huge deal. 

It IS a huge deal.

Thanks for pointing out both the good and the bad. 

No wonder this is such a polarizing company.

yes and no, you know?  Takes jobs away from one group, because it's enabling those in another.

It's creating fewer jobs than it destroys, and the jobs are going to richer people.

That's the nature of disruption.

Probably also true when you look at how the service/ranking system works from the Driver's side - the higher your service %, the more likely you will get first ping on a new fare (something like a seniority), potentially giving more fares to the top 10%?  or something.  

sighers

Yes. The software matches the best customers and drivers. It's exceedingly efficient.