They spend huge amounts of money on lobbying, though in California I understand that they spent that money to oppose politicians who are trying to further regulate the industry. The problem in the US is that the local politicians have been in the pockets of the taxi industry for so long that they have no interest in allowing a needed service like Uber to operate. Once Uber is in a place, it's hard to get rid of them because the voters generally love the much better service. At that point, the politicians start looking at more reasonable regulations.

I strongly dislike Uber's more recent frat-boy antics, but I am a huge fan of the way they are forcing political change that is desperately needed in most US cities. And I'm not at all concerned about safety when I use Uber, whereas I generally am when I use a regulated taxi. The taxi industry loves to talk up their safeguards, but I can't tell you how many times I've gotten in a taxi where the driver smelled strongly of marijuana and the back seat lacked seat belts. Top that off with drivers who forget to use deodorant, who long haul, and who argue about whether to take a credit card, and I see no reason to ever use a cab again. Complaints regarding taxi drivers seem to go into a black hole, whereas the three times I've needed to send in something about an Uber driver, I got a satisfactory response within an hour.