Interactive Taxi

I was running late this morning so I decided to grab a taxi instead of my usual walk-subway combo. Soon after I told the driver my destination, I was surprised to hear some technolite music and when I looked up to see if it was the driver’s selection I realized that there was a Hummer commerical playing on a flat panel display in the middle of the driver-passenger partition.

While the ad played I explored the screen which turned out to be a touch panel with quite a bit of content to play with during the ride. I could pick my choice of news from either NY1 or Fox News. In both cases the News was listed as a linked headline list on the left 1/3 of the screen. On the right side there was room for commercials to play while I selected a story to read. Advertisers I noted in my trip were: Hummer, American Express; Hot Jobs; CBS for CSI Miami and North Fork Bank.

On the bottom of the screen was the main navigation for the system and offered the following options: NYC Info; Restaurants; Specials; Night Life; Business or Pleasure; and About Us. From each of these selections I was able to go several levels deep to learn or read more about each option.

Live time and date as well as weather information was easy to find and seemed to be quite accurate and up to date. When I asked the driver about it, he was fairly clueless simply stating that his company put it all in there. I had not seen this kind of taxi before, but have seen the taxi tops that contain live ESPN scores which I know are delivered to the cabs over the air. I suspect this is the same way that the low bandwidth content (news and weather) arrive, but that the commercials and video content gets updated only when the cabs return to their stations.

The company that delivers this Type-A delight is called Global Vision Interactive, which is a division of iT (Interactive Taxi). As a marketer and as a tech enthusiast, I’d say this is a very intriguing way to reach your audience.

3 Replies to “Interactive Taxi”

  1. I was an an interactive taxi as well and loved it. I was in another company’s taxi that was not interactive and did not have great advertisers and I was not a huge fan. But the Global Vision guys use wireless technology and can get up-to the minute info. As someone in the industry, I am excited to see what happens with it.

  2. I was an an interactive taxi as well and loved it. I was in another company’s taxi that was not interactive and did not have great advertisers and I was not a huge fan. But the Global Vision guys use wireless technology and can get up-to the minute info. As someone in the industry, I am excited to see what happens with it.

  3. I didnt think it was all that. I sat into one late last year. I didnt find it too useful for me. WHy would I want to look up resturant, where I want to eat if I am already out, and going somewhere…. Plus that screen was too huge. I was riding that taxi in the evening.. I had to use my bag to cover it. It was just TOOOO BRIGHT. I did walk into one that was interactive. I think they called themself I Love Taxi.. or I love NY Taxi. there program was ok.. i think they need better production.

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