Er no, they totally transformed things through technology as well. Their product was fantastic. Hail a cab in the 2000s in the UK and tell me Uber had no improvement for its customers.
Right but how much of this improvement came from the invention and popularity of smartphones and how much of the innovation came from a company called Uber.
But those car companies are just riding on the coattails of Exxon, Chevron and the like with their improvements in oil discovery and hydraulic fracking.