Taxicabs With a View

Taxi trips in some of the major metropolitan areas of the United States are about to get much more interactive, thanks to an advertising company that plans to roll out hundreds of wireless multimedia systems in cabs across the nation over the next few months.

Interactive Taxi, a subsidiary of Targeted Media Partners, plans to install interactive devices in the backseats of 850 cabs in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, according to company CEO Corey Gottlieb.

The units consist of a wirelessly networked multimedia computer controlled by a touch screen.

Interactive cabs have been available in the United States for years now, but technical limitations have curbed their popularity, Gottlieb says. "We used to have 40GB hard drives in the trunk, but they were too big and also vulnerable to bumps," he adds. "Upgrading was also complicated."

Today the whole unit is mounted in the partition between the driver and the backseat and offers passengers news, restaurant listings, and other information. The touch screen is connected to a 2GB flash drive running on Windows Embedded XP that receives updates from a central database.

Practical Applications

Advertising is not the only force driving multimedia devices into cabs. By this fall, almost 13,000 cabs in New York City will have similar interactive devices, thanks to new regulations from the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission.

"In November of this year, each medallion cab must be equipped with vehicle location technology and an interactive passenger information monitor," says Allan Fromberg, public relations chief of the City of New York Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The devices will help the Commission keep tabs on the location of New York's cabs, which will enhance the security of cab drivers and also make it easier for passengers to recover items left behind.

So, what do the drivers themselves think about the high-tech gadgetry? "It's cool," says Ted Ross, a Boston Cab driver.