Uber is awesome, even the taxi version of it (which I primarily use unless taking the wife on Big Dates). For only a little bit more than a usual cab (which basically comes even to a large-ish tip), you get:

- Improved safety. You know the name of your driver and your trip is logged. Many of my wife's friends like this aspect a _lot_.

- Cleaner. At least in Chicago, many cabs are a stinky filthy mess. In Uber, with the ratings, such cabs would be out of the rotation pretty quickly.

- No standing in the sleet.

- No fumbling with cash or the argument over "broken credit card reader". Cabbies in Chicago make less on credit cards, so on most of my non-Uber trips where I want to use credit, the driver and I basically come down to a lying competition about me not carrying cash (lie) versus his machine being broken (also a lie).

The last time I was in SF, I found that using Uberx and Uber Taxi was only a dollar or two more than taking a cab.

UberX is $1 more per mile than a taxi. Also, the minimum fare is $10 for UberX vs $3.50 for a cab.

Uber Taxi charges a fixed 20% tip and $1 booking fee.

Sources:

https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/xcust/indxtxcust.htm

Yea, I used it yesterday. It's not that expensive, the app is awesome, and their responsiveness is also great.

You and me both! I love the idea of Uber, but I can never seem to justify paying the insane extra expense when I can easily take the alternatives for much cheaper.

Then again, I guess I'm not super rich.

A five mile trip in SF by taxi would cost $16.70 plus tip while Uber would cost $24.50 tip included. An extra five bucks to have a hassle free experience does not seem that extravagant, especially considering what it costs to live in SF. Certainly not "super rich" territory, it's more on the order of staying at a 4-star hotel instead of a 3-star hotel. A nice perk, but the super rich guy is getting an amazing sweet you didn't even know existed.

I live in LA and found it (uber black sedan) to be 1.5 to 2x the normal city taxi rate. So I use the taxi magic app, and works great like uber. Although, most drivers prefer you pay cash unless it's a high fare.

This is making me glad I live in Bangkok. A 5 mile trip would cost less than $3 US, unless traffic is really heavy, and there's enough taxis everywhere that you almost never wait more than 5-10 minutes to hail one curbside. No fancy tech required.

I note that in your example, it's $7.80, not $5.

There are other companies in the same general space as Uber ("hail a cab with your smartphone") that focus more on the lower end of the market.

It's ~$5 when you add tip to the regular taxi ride.

I live in Chicago.

I love Uber. I also don't have a car and use public transit 90% of the time.

You know how you have a budget for your car loan/repairs/title/gas/insurance/parking? I have one for Taxis/Public Transit, and it's a lot less than what I used to pay for my car.