Though Travis Kalanick and his colleagues had come to distrust taxi ordinances as schemes designed to protect incumbents and their shoddy levels of service from new competition, they examined local laws closely and were flexible when required. Uber was by and large a law-abider, not a law-bender. Over the next two years, and for surprising reasons, that changed. In 2012, the company would come face to face with steely regulators, an international rival with aggressive expansion plans, and, unlikeliest of all, possible disruption from two other Silicon Valley upstarts that were ready to discard
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