taxi

Get your own assistant

Siri Assistant is a free app that uses impressively accurate voice recognition to help you complete a wide variety of tasks, from making dinner reservations to calling a taxi to sending yourself an e-mail reminder.

Despite the hard-core DARPA technology behind it, Siri Assistant has a disarmingly simple interface, which looks like a scrolling IM conversation that you're having with the app. The idea is that "Siri" is your assistant, who you speak to directly in the second person (or, less fun, by typing): "Where can I find a good dentist?" will pull up a … Read more

The 404 707: Where Sweet Lou takes us back to the future (podcast)

Wilson and I are super jealous that Jeff is in Hawaii right now just playing ping pong in paradise, so we're taking this opportunity to chat with his Dad, Mr. Lou Bakalar, who joins us on today's episode to give us his insight into how Jeff grew up--turns out not much has changed since he turned 12!

Sweet Lou made his broadcasting debut on The 404 earlier this year with traffic reports from the road, and we've been waiting for him to record a show with us ever since. If you've ever wondered about Jeff's childhood or how he got his start in the video game industry, this is the show to watch!

Lou also brings a bag of goodies with him to show us how much technology has progressed in the past 40-years. Between the Audiophiliac and Lou's records and 8-track tapes, we really take our digital music players and smartphones for granted.

Check out the slideshow below for a couple of pictures of Jeff and his brother as kids, and thanks again to Sweet Lou for helping us out today!

Episode 707 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Researchers use iPad to hail driverless taxi

Hot on the heels of Google's robot cars, a team of German researchers at AutoNOMOS Labs in Berlin's Free University have upped the ante and unveiled the driverless taxi.

Imagine never arguing about the most efficient route or mentally debating the merits of tipping a driver whose ineptitude at the wheel almost killed you. Made in Germany (MIG) is an autonomous Volkswagen Passat cab you hail using an iPad app, and it eliminates the most unappealing aspect of taxis: the driver.

MIG is equipped with GPS navigation, video cameras, laser scanners, sensors and radars that it uses to … Read more

ZAP to display its electric cars at EV KOREA

Electric vehicle pioneer ZAP and Zhejiang Jonway Automobile delivered the first electric taxi produced through their China venture, ZAP Jonway, to Korean distribution partner Samyang Optics. Several new ZAP electric vehicles will be on display at the automotive engineering technology expo EV KOREA July 14 to July 16 at the Coex exhibition center in Seoul. Samyang Optics and ZAP Jonway are the official sponsors of the event.

The ZAP Taxi is an electric SUV based on the Jonway A380 with an electric drive train designed and integrated by ZAP. Also on display is the Alias, a futuristic-looking electric car designed … Read more

Can't find a taxi? Try UberCab

I love it when automotive technology extends its reach to makes life easier even for non-drivers.

Take, for example, UberCab.

Anyone who lives in San Francisco knows it's impossible to find a cab. And many times, even after you battle for 20 minutes on a Friday might to secure the attention of a taxi driver, you can still be blown off by a cabbie who can't (or won't) break a $20. Or take a credit card.

That's when you start wishing you hadn't turned down that Town Car's offer to give you a ride. … Read more

Dreamcast lives again on Xbox Live, PSN

I owned a Dreamcast, proudly, back in 1999. I loved Jet Grind Radio and Crazy Taxi. It's with a note of personal affection that I report that Sega's officially releasing Dreamcast games onto both PSN and Xbox Live later this year.

What that means, for now, is that only Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure are making the leap. Sonic Adventure, as one of the first 3D Sonics, is a dubious choice. Crazy Taxi, however, is sheer genius. I always felt that Grand Theft Auto owed a bit to Crazy Taxi's madcap mission-based racing. As a quick-fix arcade … Read more

Better Place swaps electric taxi batteries in Tokyo

Better Place, the electric-car services company, has installed a battery-switching station for electric taxis in Tokyo, part of a test to demonstrate the viability of swapping out rather than rapid charging.

Three crossover taxis have been converted to run on an electric powertrain using batteries from A123 Systems, Better Place said Monday. The 90-day test is using an automated battery-swapping station developed by Better Place and demonstrated last year in Yokohama, Japan.

Vehicles drive up an elevated ramp, and a machine removes a depleted battery and slides in a fresh one in under five minutes. Better Place asserts that this … Read more

Zap unveils all-electric taxis, hires COO

Electric carmaker Zap announced Wednesday that H. David Jones will be joining the company as its chief operating officer.

Jones was vice president of international sales at Interwave Communications covering the Beijing, Hong Kong, London, and Paris markets, and was a "consultant to Chevron's contracting organization in Angola, Africa," according to Zap. Jones replaces former Zap COO Amos Kazzaz, who's taken an executive position with an international airline carrier, according to Zap.

The announcement coincides with Zap's unveiling of a line of all-electric taxis, and a prototype Zap sports car called the Alias at the … Read more

San Francisco's taxis go green

A fleet of fuel-efficient taxis on the streets of San Francisco have reduced gas consumption in the city by 2.9 million gallons per year and lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tons annually, the equivalent of taking 4,700 passenger cars off the road.

When Mayor Gavin Newsom sponsored a green taxi law in 2008 requiring San Francisco cab companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, many said the goal was impossible to achieve. But flanked by a collection of green cabs in front of City Hall on Monday, Newsom announced … Read more