Chariot uses:
1) Battle taxi for important people who fight on foot, because walking to the battlefield in armour for is plebs and retreating on foot is dangerous. The Mycaeans and Celts may have used them like this. Homer describes these chariots in the Trojan war, but he probably worked from limited information -he knew they had chariots, but can't fathom how else they could be used. It was more likely to be...
2) Archery/javelin platform. Chariots allow elite warriors a stable archery platform that can carry lots of arrows as well as men in armour. With a driver, archers can focus on their job rather than manouvering a horse around. It also allows an easy escape from infantry -remember, chariots fall out of favour fast with most cultures that master horseriding. This is the main Middle Eastern bronze age use of the chariot, and which the Egyptians in particular are renowned for.
Chariots were used over simply riding the horse not only because horses were too weak to carry a fully equipped warrior, but also because riding the beasts is something that takes quite a while for a culture to master. And riding them in combat is harder still. From what I remember, when chariot cultures switched to horse archers they kept the system of one archer and one "driver" to control both horses for a while -I know there are depictions of Assyrians fighting like this, at least.
Don't underestimate how hard it is to get from horses as food to cavalry, is my point.
3) Mobile command post, as already mentioned. That makes sense if you haven't mastered horseriding yet or you just need something more impressive and comfortable (Darius III, looking at you).
However, we shouldn't forget...
4) Spiky terror-machine of death. A chariot is obviously vulnerable to missiles or to disciplined infantry, but huge spiky things coming right at you is going to open up an undisciplined infantry formation -much like heavy cavalry much later. The Persian scythed chariots at Gaugamela were intended for this use, and some of the heavier bronze age chariots (probably not Egyptian, but Assyrian and Hittite) could probably do the job. The Sumerian ones look like they should, but with the charge speed of donkeys or mules it seems unlikely. The earlier Celtic ones I've seen assumed used like this, but as far as I know we know little of what Celts actually were up to when they weren't fighting Romans. Caesar describes Celtic elites using chariots as a mix of battle taxi and javelin platform, the Celts seem to have been transitioning from chariots to cavalry when encountering the Romans.
TLDR: Chariots are used to do what horses do, before you have bred proper horses and have developed a horse-riding culture.
Spoiler: In short, you need...
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Re: Got a Real-World Weapon, Armor or Tactics Question? Mk. XXII
