Yes, taxi laws need to be revised, but there are sound reasons for licensing taxis operating in a city:
- Limiting the amount of traffic on the roads
- Ensuring that vehicles are nice enough (that there isn't a "race to the bottom")
- Ensuring that drivers are nice enough (qualified, not scary violent criminals)
- Ensuring that drivers are compelled to pick you up and drop you off no matter who/what you are, and where you are going.
- Ensuring that there is a central point of contact for hailing a taxi.
- No ambiguity about who and what is a taxi with regard to parking etc.
To be sure, a lot of licensed taxi services are pretty terrible. But thats not to say that the idea of licensed taxis is bad- its actually pretty reasonable.
Its worth noting that San Fransisco and the Bay Area was the "perfect storm" for creating Uber about 5 years ago- you had a fairly car-dependant transport network, an absolutely abominably terrible licensed taxi service, a lot of local skill in making web services, access to venture capital, (relatively) lax regulation, a healthy disregard for the working classes, and a naively/cynically optimistic view on self driving cars. But try to transfer those conditions to, say, a European city, and Uberization suddenly becomes a lot more difficult.
On topic: Yes, taxi laws needs to be revised. But that's a political issue.