Uber and Lyft kind of did shutdown the taxi cartels across the world in one big grassroots swing.
It took insane levels of lobbying and political power of taxis to keep a hold on some of their biggest cities, and there are now few places where non-uber/lyft style systems are still in place.
If AI taxi's are cheaper and more convenient, there's no way they won't just completely replace human taxi drivers. Cruise and Waymo have huge incentives to undercut whatever Uber would try to do. So I don't share your optimism that it will happen slowly over decades. If this self-driving system is easily repeatable elsewhere, it will likely be fast and swift.
It took insane levels of lobbying and political power of taxis to keep a hold on some of their biggest cities, and there are now few places where non-uber/lyft style systems are still in place.
If AI taxi's are cheaper and more convenient, there's no way they won't just completely replace human taxi drivers. Cruise and Waymo have huge incentives to undercut whatever Uber would try to do. So I don't share your optimism that it will happen slowly over decades. If this self-driving system is easily repeatable elsewhere, it will likely be fast and swift.