Oh yeah apps make things more convenient for sure. But functionally the app is just pre-populating ride request information in the system for dispatch instead of taking it down over the phone like in ye olden days. Nothing of the economics of fleet management changed, in fact if anything Uber’s decentralized system is less efficient, the costs from the inefficiency just get pushed to the gig worker drivers.

A lot of taxis now use similar apps for requests and dispatches; NYC has been using Arro for years for yellow cabs, and you can request accessible taxis to boot. There wasn’t anything particularly proprietary in the app, which meant the established industry would pick it up sooner or later.

I think this is why Uber has been pushing Uber Eats as of late, as there they’re just competing with Seamless/Grubhub, who also employ gig worker drivers for restaurants that don’t have delivery drivers.