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0 pointsSymbiote6y ago0 comments

In London, for decades there have been competing services to the black cabs: minicabs. They had to be booked in advance (by phone, but that translates easily to booking by app), and the price had to be agreed in advance.

From my understanding, this might be called "limousine service" in the USA, although unless you make a special request it will just be a fairly normal car.

Mobile phones and then apps made the border between the two services fuzzier, but they are still separate things.

0 comments

SilasX6y ago

Stupid question: did they actually translate minicabs to an easy smartphone UX before Uber got involved?

SymbioteOP6y ago

I can't comment on "easy" (I never used it), but the largest company, Addison Lee, had an app in 2010, five years before Uber launched in London.

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240104764/iPhone-app-bo...

ghaff6y ago

"Limo service" in the US tends to mean a more upscale black car service. (Which is how Uber actually got started.) And, outside of markets like Manhattan, it usually requires booking a day or two in advance--although there's some flexibility, especially for regular customers.

jclos6y ago

There are competing services. In Nottingham I use DG Cars, which is a taxi company but has an app that looks like Uber (you can see the drivers, fixed price, paid in advance by app). They just need to be more popular and maybe make it so that I don't have to have an account for all of them.

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