Fancy an Authentic London Taxi Cab in your garage?

authentic-london-cabThe great city of London has been around for a few hundred years already, where it has played host to plenty of interesting events in the past. There are also plenty of iconic sights to check out, including the Tower Bridge, the Westminster Abbey as well as Buckingham Palace. Apart from that, there are those red double decker buses that ferry people around, in addition to a private and far more expensive option – the public taxi. If your private bank account is feeling a little heavy at the moment and your garage is rather empty, then the $40,000 Authentic London Taxi Cab would be the perfect addition to your home.

In fact, the Authentic London Taxi Cab is a real Hackney carriage which actually plied the streets of London for more than 25 years ago. If you were to drop by London today, it would remain an iconic fixture along the Strand, where the country’s first nation’s first taxi cab stand was established all the way back in 1636. This particular version happens to be a fully restored and overhauled Fairway that dates back from the 1980s. It was specially designed with a high degree of English sensibility, where you would end up with with plenty of room to carry out a decent business meeting right in the back of the ride. A 2.7-liter Nissan diesel engine is underneath the hood, where it is mated to a three-speed automatic transmission, power steering, and power brakes.
[ Fancy an Authentic London Taxi Cab in your garage? copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Uber takes its car service to Dubai, enters first Middle Eastern locale

Uber takes its taxi service to Dubai,

The folks at Uber have had a busy, globe-trotting summer. After plans to ride into China, India and other parts of Asian crept out in June, the private car service has taken its expertise to Dubai. Arrival near the world’s tallest building marks the outfit’s first entry into the Middle East. Interested customers can use the iPhone app to request a ride in vehicles like the BMW 7-Series with more cars being added on the daily. No word on plans to expand into desert-bound dessert delivery just yet, though.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Uber

Uber intros fare splitting for cost-conscious ridesharers

Uber brings fare splitting to its mobile apps

Few party-goers look forward to the math involved with paying for a shared cab ride home. Now that Uber supports fare splitting, they won’t have to: the company’s updated Android and iOS apps let passengers divide the cost equally. While friends must be Uber members to chip in, they only have to give their permission if someone has already hailed a car. The new apps won’t necessarily get cheapskate friends to pay up, but they could avoid a few headaches at the end of a long night.

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Via: Uber Blog

Source: App Store, Google Play

NY court lifts temporary ban on cab-hailing apps, pilot program to continue

The on-againoff-again status of NYC’s e-hail pilot program is now, well, back on. A New York state court has just lifted a temporary restraining order brought on by the city’s livery cab companies that halted the year-long trial of taxi-hailing apps like Uber, Hailo and TaxiMagic. They argued that using the apps to book cabs counts as pre-arranging a service, which is strictly their territory. After weeks of deliberation, judges sided with the city, which contended the software is just another way to hail a cab.

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Source: The Epoch Times

NYC rolls out six Nissan Leafs in EV taxi pilot, good luck catching one

NYC rolls out six Nissan Leafs in EV taxi pilot, good luck catching one

New York City’s full-on EV taxi blitz may not come until late this year, but the metropolis is taking its first tentative steps into that electric world as of today: it’s deploying the six Nissan Leaf cabs promised as part of a pilot program. The half-dozen sedans will spend a year on the road, with officials able to gauge the effectiveness of EVs as taxis when they have access to both regular chargers at their home bases as well as fast chargers in Manhattan’s far West Side, Lower East Side and Union Square. Don’t expect to hail an eco-friendly cab very often, though — along with the daunting numerical odds, the Leaf drivers have more liberty than usual to turn down passengers and protect their remaining power supply. If you do happen to find yourself in the back seat, however, you’ll likely get a glimpse at New York’s cleaner and quieter future.

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Via: Autoblog

Source: New York City (PDF)

TomTom intros iPhone app for its taxi trial service, helps Dutch get home quickly

TomTom releases iPhone app for its taxi trial service, helps Dutch get home quickly

There’s been a perpetual catch with TomTom’s taxi hailing service in Amsterdam (and now Rotterdam): passengers have to hail from a specific terminal, which isn’t much help when they just need a ride home from the club at 2AM. The Dutch don’t have to necessarily forgo one convenience for another now that there’s an iPhone app. Edging closer to services like Uber, the TomTomTaxi app lets travelers order a cab from their own devices, learn about drivers and choose favorite drivers if they have good experiences. The software may keep rude surprises to a minimum, as well, when both the driver and travelers can see the fastest route for themselves. Expansion outside of the Netherlands is still a mystery, although there’s an Android app on the way that should cover a larger swath of taxi seekers.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: TomTom, App Store

Uber shuts down New York City taxi beta, may see light at the end of the (Lincoln) tunnel in February (update: TLC responds)

Uber shuts down New York City taxi beta, may see light at the end of the Lincoln tunnel in February

Uber has been having a tough time getting a foothold in New York City, and it’s temporarily withdrawing the UberTaxi service it had in beta. The withdrawal isn’t entirely for the reasons you’d expect, however. While Uber claims to have been getting grief from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for offering a competing (if technically legal) service through its smartphone apps, the program’s end was due to demand rather than any kind of outright ban — the Commission’s pressure reportedly kept Uber from matching interest with enough yellow cabs. Black car service is still on for those who don’t mind the classic ride. Should that uncomfortable balance not be quite good enough, Mayor Bloomberg is promising a truce come February, when a shift in contracts will let New York change the rules and hopefully improve the market for taxi alternatives.

Update: TLC Commissioner David Yassky has weighed in with both an elaboration and claims that the Commission has been in favor of newer technology for awhile. He notes that the contracts expiring in February relate to exclusive payment arrangements with Creative Mobile Technologies and VeriFone, and that apps of all kinds (Uber’s included) can compete for attention at that point. His full statement:

“In recent months, as e-hail apps have emerged, TLC has undertaken serious diligence and is moving toward rule changes that will open the market to app developers and other innovators. Those changes cannot legally take place until our existing exclusive contracts expire in February. We are committed to making it as easy as possible to get a safe, legal ride in a New York City taxi, and are excited to see how emerging technology can improve that process. Our taxis have always been on the cutting edge of technological innovation, from GPS systems to credit card readers.”

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Uber shuts down New York City taxi beta, may see light at the end of the (Lincoln) tunnel in February (update: TLC responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New York City, meet your new official taxi: the Nissan NV200

New York City, meet your new official taxi the Nissan NV200

Back in May, Nissan unveiled its NV200 van as New York City’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” in a joint press conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Today, NYC’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) made the pact official, signing regulations that will replace the city’s iconic line of Crown Victorias (and myriad other cabs) with the NV200 beginning in October 2013. As Nissan puts it, today’s signing, “officially makes the NV200 the taxicab of New York City.”

The NV200 van beat out competition from the likes of Ford to take New York City’s coveted “Taxi of Tomorrow” award months ago. When Engadget EIC (and gearhead) Tim Stevens explored the NV200 at the New York Auto Show, he called it “a huge advance” over existing taxi stock. And hey, will all those amenities, we can’t disagree. Most exciting for commuters: Nissan’s NV200 taxi features separate climate controls for passengers, as well as USB slots for mobile charging. “Taxi of Tomorrow” indeed!

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New York City, meet your new official taxi: the Nissan NV200 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: Samsung’s human, Galaxy Note-powered taxi

Visualized Samsung's human, Galaxy Notepowered taxi

That’s the last time we take a taxi in Berlin. After a fairly harrowing journey across the city to tonight’s Samsung IFA event, we reached our destination and spotted a clearly superior mode of transportation: a fleet of pedal-powered cabs sporting Galaxy Note 10.1s in the back. Of course, we probably would have spent more time admiring the glory that is Berlin, rather than the 10-inch screen, but it’s nice tp have the option there when we need it.

Continue reading Visualized: Samsung’s human, Galaxy Note-powered taxi

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Visualized: Samsung’s human, Galaxy Note-powered taxi originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it

Samsung files for patent on safe taxi app and service, we hope we never fully test it

Anyone who often relies on taxi service to get around, as good as it can be, has likely had a driver who was less than courteous — and in the worst cases, outright scary. Samsung wants to keep passengers safe, and drivers honest, through a just-published patent application for an end-to-end taxi service. On a basic level, it’s a taxi finder with a rating system: the mobile app in the patent can hail a nearby cab based on the driver’s “kindness” rating and verify that it’s the right vehicle with a short-range wireless link, not unlike an even more genteel version of Uber. It’s when passengers hop inside that Samsung’s implementation takes on a more distinct shape. If the driver puts customers or the whole cab in danger, a passenger-activated SOS mode flags the car’s location to get the police on the scene before it’s too late. We don’t know how likely Samsung is to implement such a system, although it has been actively developing more advanced backseat technology and filed the US patent in February, a year after its Korean equivalent. We do know this is one of the few patents we’d rather not completely experience first-hand — the only crazy taxis we’re comfortable with sit inside game consoles.

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Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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