[Alberta's Child]

It's much more informal. A typical ridesharing service involves a person who needs a ride and sends a request for a pick-up through their iPhone. Any participating driver in the area who has their phone on gets notified of the request, and can respond quickly to pick the person up. The passenger has already authorized payment through the order, and the driver's account gets credited without any cash ever changing hands.

I'm no fan of excessive government regulation, but I can see where this is fraught with potential problems. For one thing, auto insurance companies aren't going to look too kindly on their clients running a taxi-cab service with their private autos. And I've always questioned the safety/security aspect of this, too.

[Alberta's Child]

P.S. — The ideal application is if you need to go from Point A to Point B, you send a request through your iPhone, and you get picked up by someone who is already driving in the area of Point A and is destined for a place where they have to drive past Point B.