December 15, 2006
Taxis To Tech Out
The Taxi and Limousine Commission revealed new features for taxis of tomorrow, and Gothamist is in love with many of them. For starters, since the taxis will have GPS tracking, when if you lose something in a cab and don't have a medallion number, if you call the helpline, the TLC will try to track the cab, based on where you were dropped off. Brilliant! (But you should still collect a receipt, because that has a medallion number on it.)
Other new features will include a a credit-card reader for payments and a touch-screen monitor for passengers with access to the news, weather, and even restaurant reviews. And unlike Taxi TV from a few years ago, these monitors can be turned off. Wow, we might be entering the 21st century!
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I'm all for it as long as I can really turn them off. Those Taxi TVs used to make me car sick.
You think they'll add anti-bike-killer technology? Or better yet- replace the driver altogether with a computer?
I hope these taxis will have internet service so I can log on to Gothamist and get all my graffiti, Shake Shack, and Asians being insulted news.
If you dislike Gothamist so much why do you come back day after day and leave comments?
why don't they divert some of that cash towards air fresheners
The new Taxi TV gizmos are supposedly powered by NYCTV - the City run TV station that also runs channel 25 and has shows on NBC. If you are not familiar with station check it out at www.nyc.gov/tv
Cool!
Not to be the pessimist, BUT...
a) how soon do folks REALLY think it'll happen?
b) didn't the credit-card acceptance idea pretty much fail? Not as an idea, but as in "every cab I've been in, EVER, has a credit card swiper that's perpetually broken."
c) who's footing the bill for the upgrades?
Don't worry, we're going to swipeless systems anyway. I think that as long as they have GPS installed, you should get receipt with a full map of the route the cab took, just so you can check if the drive took the long way.
I'd like to see Mastercard's pay pass accepted in cabs. Or maybe that's too dangerous when I'm drunk...
they tried the touh-screen thing in chicago a few years ago and everysingle one was busted if I remember correctly. People would kick and punch them and put gun on them. And the idea of touching those things makes me sick. Maybe these will be different though.
gum, not gun. Though I am sure a gun was probably pulled on those things more than once for being so stupidly frustrating to use.
NBC and WABC will be providing video for two of the three services providing video. Apparently this isn't a monopoly, which is a good thing.
if i can see NYCTV's Kelly Choi in the back of the cab, the windows are bound to get steamed up!