The battle over the future of the taxi – The Verge

Yellow taxis have a new weapon in their war against Uber: gadgets

2016-09-26T13:14:16-04:00

Riding in a yellow taxi used to be a miserable experience, which helps explain why Uber and Lyft were able to swoop in and so thoroughly disrupt the industry. Fed up with unreliable and dirty taxi rides, passengers migrated en masse to ride-hail apps that promised cleaner rides, friendlier drivers, and seamless payments. Taxi operators tried to stave off the bleeding by rolling out their own apps - but most were just pale copies of Uber. Now, the traditional taxi industry is launching a new counter-offensive against the ride-hail menace: gadgets.

Starting this year and ramping up in 2017, Verifone Systems - one of the largest payment proces …

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Flywheel, the app that makes taxis act like Uber, is coming to New York City

2016-09-22T12:00:08-04:00

Flywheel's new operating system replaces taxi meters with a single smartphone.

Flywheel, a Bay Area-based e-hail app company, announced Thursday that its "TaxiOS" technology was approved by New York City regulators for use in the city's iconic yellow taxis.

Flywheel offers two main products: an e-hail app for riders, and a smartphone-based operating system for taxi drivers that replaces the jumble of meters, dispatch, advertising, navigation systems, and credit card readers currently clogging the interior of the vehicle.

It's an aggressive move by Flywheel into a space dominated for over a decade by just two companies, Verifone and Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT). And it's a move the company hopes will eventually …

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Save money on Uber by sharing rides with strangers

2014-08-06T00:22:58-04:00

Uber wants you to get into an unfamiliar car with a total stranger. But that may be a price worth paying for a cheaper ride. The company's new UberPool feature will notify users if it discovers a "co-rider" with similar travel plans, and will also provide the other person's first name and information as to who will be collected first. The two passengers can then split the fare.

a "bold social experiment"

Those journeying to stranger pastures won't be left out in the cold, either, as Uber promises to provide a discount even if a travelling companion cannot be found. "While the UberPool idea is simple, the implications are profound," declares …

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New York City’s taxi policy chief just defected to Uber

2014-05-20T10:01:08-04:00

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Ashwini Chhabra, deputy commissioner of policy and planning at the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, will be joining Uber as the startup's first head of policy development and community engagement.

The Commission has had an at-times adversarial relationship with Uber, which launched its yellow cab-hailing app in New York City without approval and had to pull it back. Since then, the commission has affirmed its belief that hailing apps are good for New Yorkers, but forced Uber to go through a bureaucratic process that gave its competitors time to catch up. Having lost its first-mover advantage, Uber is now up against similar apps …

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Uber car attacked as Paris taxi strike turns violent

2014-01-13T06:17:29-05:00

paris taxi (flickr)

A major protest organized by French taxi drivers turned violent Monday, as demonstrators attacked Uber cars outside Paris' two main airports. As Le Monde reports, the nationwide demonstrations were organized by five major taxi unions, which are protesting the "unfair competition" that Uber and other chauffeur services pose. Kat Borlongan, co-founder of consulting firm Five by Five, was traveling from the Charles de Gaulle airport Monday morning when her Uber car was attacked by protesters. The assailants threw rocks and paint at their van, before smashing a passenger window and slashing one of its tires. Uber confirmed the attack in a statem …

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Uber aims to attract new drivers with Toyota and GM car discounts

2013-11-25T08:38:06-05:00

Uber NYC stock 1020

Uber drivers that walk into a Toyota or General Motors dealership will get as much as $7,500 off their next car. According to a report today in the Wall Street Journal, the cab-hailing app is partnering with the two manufacturers to offer Uber drivers on-the-spot discounts and more favorable terms for financing on their next car purchase. The exact terms of the deal are still unclear, but apparently some drivers have already taken Uber up on the offer. The piece highlights one driver, Alexandre Sandor, who purchased a new Cadillac XTS and received both a $7,500 rebate and low-interest financing through the program.

It's part of Uber's large …

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Google Ventures reportedly invests $250 million in Uber

2013-08-23T12:02:05-04:00

Uber NYC stock 1020 2

Uber has squirmed its way through a number of obstinate legal blockades to continue offering its on-demand taxi services, and it looks like the effort is paying off: according to a public filing spotted by All Things D, Uber is now valued at around $3.5 billion. And it appears that Google has taken notice in a big way - both ATD and TechCrunch are reporting that Google Ventures, an investment arm of Google, has invested around $250 million into the startup. TechCrunch reports that it's Google Venture's largest investment to date, and it should give Uber plenty of room to grow. Neither company has publicly addressed the rumor yet however, and …

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Taxi hailing apps off to slow start in New York, but could still accelerate

2013-08-08T16:59:02-04:00

New York City Taxi TLC (STOCK)

Some of the first data on New York City's nascent taxi e-hail program was released earlier this week, and the headline stat painted a grim picture: only 0.25 percent of all taxi trips were e-hails, and just 17 percent of electronic cab requests resulted in an actual ride. New Yorkers should be careful, however, before they write off the program - and apps like Hailo and Uber - as a bad fit for the city.

Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) chair David Yassky defended the e-hail program, saying in a statement that "it's way too soon to draw any meaningful conclusions." And he has a point. The data (provided by the TLC, which oversees the prog …

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Los Angeles deals setback to Uber, other ride-sharing apps with cease and desist order

2013-06-25T15:01:17-04:00

For every step of progress made by the ride-sharing industry in metropolitan havens like New York City, companies like Uber, Lyft, and SideCar continue to meet stiff resistance elsewhere. Take the city of Los Angeles for example, which just sided with traditional taxi operators by delivering sharply worded cease and desist letters to all three startups. The orders - signed by LA taxicab administrator Thomas M. Drischler - warn each company that their respective business is "operating an unlicensed commercial transportation service" within city limits. Uber, Lyft, and SideCar are each ordered to suspend all passenger pickups and any dispatche …

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FTC backs Uber in dispute with DC Taxicab Commission (Update)

2013-06-12T19:21:58-04:00

The Federal Trade Commission is siding with Uber in its struggle to operate legally in Washington, DC. In December, the DC City Council decided to rewrite its taxi laws so that companies like Uber - which use mobile apps to hail cabs, black cars and other transportation - could bring their businesses to the district. And in January, the City Council passed an amendment to essentially legalize Uber's e-hail app. But in May, the DC Taxicab Commission proposed new restrictions on car-booking apps that are now preventing Uber and its rivals from operating there.

Last week, the FTC sent the Taxicab Commission a letter arguing that the new rules …

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