I use Waze myself and while it is brilliant, I would still trust a black cab to get there quicker when it involves anything remotely near zone 1.

They did, for London black cabs, there is "Hailo".

Actually, yes! They can provide a subpar service, without the customers knowing, or having any way of knowing that the service they are paying for, is rubbish and/or overpriced.

A short while back, we had a scandal in the UK, where a lot of beef was actually more horse than anything, consumers had no way of knowing they were being cheated, as flavourings and colours were used to disguise it.

A subpar product can easily be sold without customers knowing they are being cheated, this is why we have standards and regulations

Not saying it is not, I was referring to the cheating aspect of the argument.

(raped by a taxi .. must be what happened to the Goatse guy ..)

And you can still get meat labelled as 100% beef where it is mostly horse/pig/goat/alien instead.

If the consumers cannot tell the difference (due to whatever flavourings they use to mask the taste) is that a reason to just allow it, "in the name of competition" ?

They are rated as some of the best in the world.

They welcome competition, on fair terms. Tourists (a rather large market in London) have no way of comparing the service provided by the Uber cabs, and the licensed cabs. They have no way of knowing if the Uber driver is actually selecting the best (and cheapest) route for the journey and as Uber have no requirements for drivers to know the area they operate in, there will be plenty of times when the customers will be ripped off, without even knowing it.

If only this was the question.

The government is regulating the market at the moment, however Uber is trying to bypass the regulations the rest of the market have to adhere to.

Uber is doing this via providing an inferior, unregulated service, which may, or may not be competitive on price.

Most customers will not be able to tell the difference between the route selected by an Uber driver, and the route being selected by someone who is bound by a requirement to know what is the optimal route. In the end the customers will be the ones paying the price, without even knowing they were ripped off.

Want to book a cab via an app? Use the existing one for the licensed cabbies?
Want to compete in this market? Compete on even terms, get fully licensed drivers to sign up to Uber and let the proof be in the pudding.

Apart from when I am a passenger, I have absolutely no connection cab drivers, not in London, not anywhere. I DO live in London and understand the concerns raised by the cabbies.

You could not be more wrong. What they are doing is saying "we had to spend 3 years of our lives, studying and passed rigorous tests, which are repeated at regular intervals, with background checks and continuous scrutiny from "mystery shoppers", and can be kicked out of we mess up... And Uber thinks it's ok to ignore this and operate outside the framework we are forced to adhere to? Not a chance!"

What you, and your fellow Americans posting here, seem to forget (or perhaps you do not know?) is that with London black cabs, you already get a clean and well maintained car with a professional driver. On top of that, said driver actually knows his way around, as he had to prove this when he was given his license, and continuously have to prove it again when he is tested on a regular basis. The London black cabs are regulated and every single driver have to adhere to standards in order to keep his/her license. Fail to drive the best route somewhere? The person in the back might just be a "mystery shopper" and you could lose your license... The black cabs also have an app (Hailo) which can be used to book, track and pay for your ride using any of your stored cards. This is not a case of cabbies stomping their feet and whining, they just do not take well to Ãoeber bypassing the requirements they have to adhere to.

It is very clear that you have never set foot in a black cab in London. Not only do the drivers have to pass extensive (and expensive) training and testing, they are also vetted and held to a very high standard in order to obtain and keep their licenses. They KNOW London and how to get around, to a level which I have yet to see any GPS device/app (including Waze) compete with. Requirements Uber are completely bypassing, with the result being an unfair advantage. Black cabs already have an app, with which you can check availability (location of cabs near you on a map), book a cab (with information about the driver) and pay for the ride using any of your stored cards. It's called "Hailo" and I have used it on many occasions. Personally, I would always pick a black cab in London, over some random guy who signed up for using an app with a GPS device.

If you are indeed a charity, I would happily have a look at your front/back end and typical usage patterns and based on that give an honest recommendation as to what you can do to improve stability. I currently manage/own/run The hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (both the foundation/charity and h2g2.com), the Lycos Chat's in Europe and a number of smaller sites/companies and would be happy to lend a hand. Pop me a mail on Brian (a) Larholm.org if interested.