Well it works for them. They prey on the naivety of youth and it has worked well for them. If they did not hire David Plouffe they would not have been able to twist the arms behind the backs of local governments that bare the responsibility to protect it's residents. What part of 7 rapes inside TNC vehicles between April and August of 2015 within the city limits of Austin do the kids not get???????????????????? Sure they are safer than taxis:-) The only problem is drug dealers are taking the cars and phones from Uber drivers that owe them money and going out and doing as they please. Trust me when a powerful person's barely adult kid gets harmed in one of them there will be hell to pay. Uber made a big mistake. If they did not play hard ball and were not so greedy there would be a place for them. Yes a TNC works well for over flow business from local taxi companies. Everything will be better for everyone but the greedy if they are regulated and allowed to pick up the over flow. No one should have to wait any more than 10 min. for any ride. Good regulation will make that happen. No young adult should be hit with 3-10 times the normal amount at 2 AM because a company has abused the system and caught that person out when they were so drunk and wanted to make such a good impression for their friends that they wind up eating noodles for the next week. So yeah Uber loves youth. They know their CEO can but houses all over the world while the young adults they prey on eat roman noodles. Uber only cares to take as much as they can as fast as they can. They prey on the youth and twist the arms behi9nd local politicians backs that try to protect those very same people.

Oh supper bright one and only true light. Explain to me how a local company that at best has just over 500 taxi permits out spend or out bride a multinational company that is worth billions? Please explain that to us really simple people:-) The truth is you are on the side of the greedy on this smart one. It is easy to see you have not researched this much. A Texas based TNC is moving their headquarters to Austin and this company has a policy of working with local regulators. The problem the whole time was that taxi companies can not get part time permits. A TNC can fill the void or over flow. Do you like it when Uber just ups their price and the kids are downtown proving they are smarter than their smart phone and just clicking away drunk? One big thing cities have always done is keep the taxi business from gouging the consumers. Well Uber does that and of course they try to make themselves look like saints and call it anything but gouging. So yes to TNC and no to Uber trying to knock the Taxi companies out of business and not be regulated. Trust me they will up their price much higher than taxis if the city does not prevent them from doing so as soon as they starve the taxi companies out of business. Why don't you do more research or leave this to the ones that can? Some cut and paste for you just encase you have a real problem researching. Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent.