This is the context of "There's already taxis. What does Uber (or Lyft, not opposed to Lyft) offer?" And the answer is obviously something.

Still from the user perspective I see no difference between Uber/Lyft or taxi - I choose the one which is fastest/cheapest on a given circumstances, so not sure what's your point here.

The whole point is that these companies made it possible to know what it was going to cost and made it generally faster and much easier.

If you never rode in a cab before those companies existed you have no idea how terrible it was.

> If you never rode in a cab before those companies existed you have no idea how terrible it was.

That's very location specific, living in London Uber is no cheaper than minicabs on most journeys, you already could find out the price of a journey beforehand, larger minicab companies already had apps for booking (albeit not as polished), and Uber drivers generally seem to lack the kind of local knowledge of roads that allow local cab drivers to choose faster routes than whatever route their app indicates.

The only area Uber has a compelling advantage is journeys of ten miles or more across the city, where not having to return to the area where the journey begun means that they are cheaper than a minicab.