Skift Take
Bravado has taken Uber far, but challenging the U.S.’s best taxi system proved to be too big a challenge for the San Francisco startup.
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Uber’s “damn the man” strategy may have backfired. The San Francisco-based startup took a chance when it launched its taxi-hailing service in New York against the wishes of the local Taxi & Limousine Commission, hoping that the regulators would bend — or that customers would love Uber Taxi so much that the TLC would have to give it a pass. The goal was to be the first mover in a hotly-contested new market. However, after just over one month of operation, Uber is now asking taxi drivers to turn in their company-issued iPhones and cease using the app to pick up fares.
Uber is “about to take a very expensive bath,” one industry insider told The Verge in an email.