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"I would be interested to see what’s happening with Uber in 10 years, say."

For what it's worth, I really doubt Uber will be around, other than perhaps as a brand name. It is currently losing $1 billion a quarter. And yes, I really do mean an annual loss of 4 billion dollars.

There are a few reasons they can undercut other taxi services. Ignoring local taxi regulations on the basis they're not a taxi company is one, and side-stepping employment costs is another.

However another important factor is that they appear to subsidise what they pay to drivers. The whole scheme seems to be venture capitalists all betting on building a large enough market share to stifle competition. Personally, I think the even bigger bet was on autonomous driving technology, which would obviously make the employment law issues irrelevant.

However, Uber's self-driving tech has already been responsible for one fatality. More significant than that death (if that is possible), is the extent of the failure as the poor woman was clearly right in front of the Uber car, with clear lines of sight and no other traffic around. More recently, there have been reports that Uber was ignoring issues which should have raised serious concerns over safety, but they continued to test on public roads.

Hence I think Uber and other similar companies raise lots of issues, whether it's venture capitalism pouring money into a particular sector, the coming disruptions from technology replacing the need for human labour and of course the whole "gig economy" aspect.