Interesting article, but it failed to make mention of to what extent GPS based navigation apps have made acquiring "The Knowledge" obsolete. I'd hate to have spent the months or years of study required only to find out that similar routing information now fits in a shirt pocket.
Is there any evidence on this? Anecdotally, I have a far better experience with cabbies who don't use GPS. They are far more likely to know good routes. There's a possible bias in that the better cabbies may be less likely to use GPS in the first place of course.
More than once have I had to tell my black cab driver that he's going down an inefficient route, and it's obvious (albeit difficult to prove) that this was on purpose to jack up the price for the ride. Worse: there's no one I can call for a refund. In contrast, I've contacted Uber when this has happened with their drivers and always been given credits to make up the difference. Credits are no refund, for sure, but on the other hand I've kept using the service so I suppose it works out much the same.
On the other hand, more than once have I had to actually give my Uber driver turn-by-turn directions because the Uber app is terrible with routing, the driver ignores it, or both.
My best experience in London has been with Uber exec. The cars are nicer, the drivers are generally more knowledgeable and professional, and most importantly they've learned to not rely on Uber's crappy mapping but rather use some other device to figure out the best route. More often than not, this means Google Maps (which, I think, Uber uses as well yet still manages to be useless) and some creative use of intermediate turns to avoid traffic – knowledge that likely comes from experience driving down London's streets as opposed to studying maps in a class room.
There was a brief moment, before Uber had any significant presence in London, that an app called Hailo provided an Uber like experience but only contracted black cabs. This worked quite well, since they solved the two worst problems with black cabs, in my opinion:
1. Finding one 2. Paying for it (most only deal in cash)
Uber obviously fixed both of these, but also provides more comfortable cars (at least on the exec level) and more often than not more professional drivers (hit and miss, the UberX level is a lottery.)
My typical experience with black cab drivers is that they are middle aged white males with a very conservative and xenophobic world view, lack of respect for women, and not afraid to share it. I'm white, and male, but still find this very uncomfortable and not something I like to support financially. Only once have I encountered a female black cab driver, and we even discussed that fact. She told me that she estimated the number of female drivers to be around 10% of the driver workforce, but I've seen numbers[1] to suggest it's much lower than that.
In any event, these days if I have to travel to London, I exclusively use Uber Exec, simply because I find that service seems to hit the sweet spot of professionalism, service, and comfort, at a price that's still cheaper than a black cab – and I don't have to carry cash. That said, I feel no loyalty to Uber and if there was a competitor that could provide an experience with a more consistent track record (as mentioned UberX is hit-and-miss) I probably wouldn't hesitate to try them out.
[1]: https://www.cglloyds.co.uk/news/2015/02/12/interview-with-Lo...