Last week, I couldn’t get Uber to work. Late at night, on a corner with little traffic, I called the local taxi company…and to my complete surprise, the person answering sounded very different than the last time I called. The gruff, usually impolite dispatcher’s voice rising above a background chorus of curt radio exchanges with drivers was gone. Replacing it? The clear and cheerful voice of a woman — it conjured up visions of a mid-westerner, sitting on the phone at the kitchen table....