NYC Wants Ideas For "Taxi Technology 2.0"

An anonymous reader writes "New York City is soliciting ideas from the public about possible technology improvements for its 13,000+ fleet of taxis. TLC (the city agency in charge of cabs) is 'seek[ing] input and information on ways to enhance the technology systems in each taxicab for the benefit of passengers, drivers and owners alike.'"

Comments

How about a method for electronically hailing cabs

[bigtrike]

How about a method for electronically hailing a cab?

Part of the inefficiency taxis is that they drive around looking for fares, while interested riders may be waiting nearby but out of visual range.

Some method of being able to hail a cab from a cel phone with built in GPS would improve the ability of cabs and customers to find each other. The technology should be fairly easy to set up, simply requiring smartphones on both the passenger and driver end and at least a couple of servers to manage the information. Costs could be paid for with advertisements or very small fees from participants.

The biggest barrier to such a system is critical mass, which would be easy to obtain if the city simply picked an official provider of such a system.

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[Repton]

I heard a FOAF story about a taxi driver who installed a GPS in his taxi. He'd always say to new fares: "You can have the GPS route, or you can have the route I think is best. Which do you want?"

Many, perhaps most, people would pick the GPS ... and promptly get stuck in traffic, because it doesn't know when to avoid main roads, all the shortcuts available, etc. It paid itself off in a few weeks..