Do you want ads in the backseat of your taxi?
I don't know why but I seem to be morbidly interested in how taxis are getting connected (I have a previous post on the Digital Taxi here). Taxi fleets have been early adopters of connectivity technology for purposes of logistics/coordination and they are pioneering the integration of multiple connected devices in the car for commercial purposes. And New York City's taxi fleets are the earliest of early adopters, compared to other cities in the US.
Now, this early adopter community is turning to back-seat advertising. I was in New York City two weeks ago and noticed, during my frequent taxi-rides, that virtually every taxi there has an interactive digital screen in the back-set, in addition to a card-swipe to pay by credit card and receive a printed receipt. The devices have been built by Verifone.
Turns out there are two competing offerings across New York. One side includes Verifone (Transportation Systems) in partnership with WABC. The other side includes Creative Mobile Technology together with ClearChannel and NBC Universal. A New York Times article on this is here.
The real twist in this tale seems to be that cab drivers hate this system with a passion - they have to listen to the same news snippets and advertising jingles over and over again. It drives them crazy!!
Local content (GPS tracking, local weather, celebrity news etc.): This screen has a map with the taxi's location on it (presumably tracked through GPS). Note the tabs on top for news, weather, sports, dining, etc. Live TV is available (Accuweather news in this screenshot) - New York's local ABC affiliate WABC is running this Taxi TV network.
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