New York Cab Drivers Concern Over GPS

Those New Yorkers among you may have seen the latest attempt to stick a TV in the back of a cab recently (how many times have they tried?). The new system not only gets you a couple of minutes of TV fodder but also allows you to pay by credit card and work out where your taxi is on a map. The map is powered through GPS. And it’s this tracking that’s concerned some taxi drivers. EWeek reports:

“There are two issues. One is moral and constitutional, the other is financial,” said NYTWA spokesman Bill Lindauer, in New York. “Under the system [mandated by TLC] drivers are tracked, they’re spied upon. It’s like we’re under surveillance. Not only are we under surveillance we have to pay for the dubious privilege.”

The New York City TLC, the governing body of New York’s 13,000 taxis, passed a law last year that mandates “taxicab technology systems” be installed in all city cabs starting in October.

Maybe by tracking the taxis we can work out where they take all our forgotten laptops and bags that never get to lost property??

Speaking to a cabby this morning with one of these systems in the back, it seemed to us that he was not so concerned with the GPS. He told us:

What? That piece of crap? It takes 2 minutes for a credit card payment to go through. I could have picked up another fare in that time.

New York Cab Drivers to Strike Over GPS