Touchscreens In Taxis Experiment Failed
from the oh-well dept
It appears when people get into a taxicab they just want to get where they're going. I remember a few years back the infamous Yahoo taxi cabs that let you surf the internet (via a ricochet modem). Not much came of that experiment, and it appears that not much came of an experiment to provide special interactive touchscreens in the backs of NYC taxicabs either. The 515 screens are being pulled out of cabs after an eight month trial where it was determined that New Yorkers "didn't embrace" the feature. Most were "indifferent or annoyed" by the units, which certainly suggests that even the "didn't embrace" phrase was a bit of an understatement. However, this decision to kill the program - made by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission - isn't making everyone happy. Some of the companies supplying the screens to taxi companies say that their own results have shown a much better response, and they'd like to keep the system running.
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It's actually a better idea than suggested, and the bonus is that is has a lot of potential as well. I'm disappointed that the Commission is being a bit bear-headed about the whole thing.
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