Will Oremus thinks the taxi industry is doomed; that even if they can hurriedly reinvent their business to be more like Uber or Lyft, it's too late. I don't have any particular opinion on that but I do think that unless they are regulated out of existence, ride-sharing enterprises like Uber are here to stay.
I've been taking a lot of Ubers lately. My knee is almost to the point where I won't feel irresponsible getting behind the wheel of my car. Actually, I did get behind its wheel this week just to start it and discovered that either (a) my battery is dead or (b) my battery is dead and my alternator is on the fritz. The car wouldn't start but every light on the dashboard came on and flashed to a disco beat. I'm not going to deal with this until I'm ready to drive again because if it's just the battery and the Auto Club can jump it, I'm not ready to then drive around for a while to get it fully recharged. Or if I have it towed-in and repaired, I'm not ready to go pick it up and drive it home. But soon.
Anyway, I've had naught but good Uber experiences lately. Even had a driver who told me a list of his favorite comic books and included Groo the Wanderer among them. He said this after, in response to his query, I told him I wrote comics but before I'd told him which ones or he knew my last name. Guess who got a good rating.
But I would have given him one anyway because it was a fine ride in a nice car and I can't think of any way a taxicab could have topped it — except maybe to have better insurance if we got into a collision, which we didn't. They've all been like that lately. If I ran a cab company, I'd sure be worried.