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El Reg reports
Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has found a way to out-Uber Uber by launching a taxi-finding app of its own.
[...]Come December, the Authority will also offer a new app called "Taxi-Taxi@SG" that will "show the availability and location of taxis across the island and better match these taxis to commuters."
"Through an integrated platform map, commuters can easily locate the number of available taxis near them and broadcast their positions so taxi drivers can identify the exact locations of potential customers" the Authority says. "Similarly, taxi drivers can make use of this app to cut down the time spent on the roads looking for customers."
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(Score: 2) by RobotMonster on Monday December 01 2014, @01:26PM
We've had taxi apps in Australia for a few years now.
Much faster than the traditional method of phoning for a cab, both in time spent ordering and time spent waiting.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday December 01 2014, @01:36PM
We have some pretty poor ones in the UK too. The great thing about Uber is you can see exactly where the taxi is, no more phoning up for a taxi, having a "he'll be there in 5 minutes", and finding out he's actually in Timbuktu.
My office in Singapore has a taxi rank outside, which is usually OK, and the taxis are dirt cheap, however there are two issues
Uber bypasses both of those. You can book the taxi from the office, see when it's about to arrive, pop down the lift. As you've got a destination locked in, there's no wondering if the next taxi will take you or not.
(Score: 2) by RobotMonster on Monday December 01 2014, @01:44PM
The non-uber taxi app I use also shows the location of the taxi, once it has been allocated.
You also get an SMS when it's getting close to arriving (or even configure it to allow them to phone you).
You can include your destination in your order (or you can put 'as directed'), but I've never run into the "no I won't take you to X" problem, nor heard of it happening.
I'm not sure if they're even allowed to do that, unless they don't think you've got the capacity to pay or are being violent & threatening.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday December 01 2014, @05:13PM
The other benefit is the bidding. I live in a fairly small city in the UK. There are three taxi companies here that offer apps. None of them quote a price up front, but even if they did then trying to work out which one is cheapest (or more likely to be on time) at any given time would be quite hard if you have to check three different apps. For bigger cities there are a lot more than 3 taxi companies.
For people who travel a lot, the biggest benefit of Uber is that there's just one app. You get of a plane, and Uber will let you book a taxi (if you fly United, their app integrates with Uber directly). There's no need to work out which local company has a good reputation, contact them, or queue at a taxi rank: just use the app you're already familiar with and book the car.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by josh64 on Monday December 01 2014, @09:43PM
Not in good old Perth. In fact, apparently the taxi monopoly there is scrambling to get their own taxi app together and hoping the government will stall Uber long enough for them to get it released. This is the same taxi monopoly that has started charging extra money if you want your taxi to turn up on time (e.g. if you need to be picked up at X o'clock to make it to the airport for your Y o'clock flight).