Pushing the costs of maintenance, insurance, and safety onto the drivers and passengers is not disruptive. Taxi companies were doing that decades ago.
Yes, safety regulation costs money. The reason we accept higher prices is to avoid the catastrophic costs that could result if there was no regulation forcing taxis to maintain their vehicles, carry insurance, accept all passengers, etc. Licensing forces a minimum level of insurance on taxi providers to guarantee that injured passengers are properly cared for in the event of an accident involving the taxi provider. The cost of the insurance and maintenance requirements are the primary drivers (pun intended) of taxi costs. Uber avoids these costs (i.e, the disruption of its business model) by maintaining smaller insurance policies and pushing the maintenance costs onto drivers.
The issue is not with licensing and regulation. It's that only a limited number of taxis get authorized. That is most definitely an artificial limit, and does not help safety.
And then there's proposed laws like this, where they force a higher cost _just to prevent competition_.
I obviously can't speak for every city in the world, but typically the reason taxis are expensive is severely limited supply (e.g. medallions in NYC). In most cities in the developed world even the best insurance policies money can buy would not allow me to legally run a taxi service.
Yes, safety regulation costs money. The reason we accept higher prices is to avoid the catastrophic costs that could result if there was no regulation forcing taxis to maintain their vehicles, carry insurance, accept all passengers, etc. Licensing forces a minimum level of insurance on taxi providers to guarantee that injured passengers are properly cared for in the event of an accident involving the taxi provider. The cost of the insurance and maintenance requirements are the primary drivers (pun intended) of taxi costs. Uber avoids these costs (i.e, the disruption of its business model) by maintaining smaller insurance policies and pushing the maintenance costs onto drivers.