Archinect - News

New York City's congestion pricing program receives federal approval

2023-06-27T13:58:00-04:00

Congestion pricing in New York City has cleared its final federal hurdle, officials said on Monday, all but ensuring that the first such program in the nation will begin next year with the aim of reducing traffic and pollution in Manhattan and funding improvements to mass transit.

Following the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the program, a local panel appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will now work to determine final toll rates, including any discounts or exemptions.

A report released by the MTA last August revealed one proposal that would charge $23 for a trip during rush hour into Midtown Manhattan and $17 during off-peak hours. Initially approved by the New York State legislature in 2019, the program is expected to generate $1 billion per year for the MTA. This revenue will be directed toward improving New York City’s public transit network. The Authority says the program could potentially start in spring 2024.

Previously on Archinect: Congestion pricing in New York City set to become a reality by the end of 2023

As reported by The New York Times, opponents of the plan include the likes of taxi drivers and ride-share companies who believe the new tolls will cut demand for their services. In addition, some New Jersey...

Waymo partners with Chinese automaker Geely to develop fleet of autonomous, electric taxis

2021-12-30T09:00:00-05:00

Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo is partnering with Chinese automaker Geely to create a fleet of all-electric, self-driving robotaxis.

The cars will be designed in Sweden, where Geely owns Swedish car manufacturer Volvo. Waymo will integrate the Waymo Driver, their autonomous driving technology, into Geely's electric, transportation-as-a-service (Taas)-optimized Zeekr vehicle. Waymo plans to deploy the vehicles in the US within their existing fleet of autonomous taxis "in the years to come."

Tokyo launches first autonomous 'robot taxi' ahead of 2020 Olympics

2018-08-29T14:37:00-04:00

A venture firm and a major taxi company began trials of passenger-carrying autonomous taxi services on Monday with an eye on launching the full service around 2020 when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and the Paralympics. ZMP Inc., a Tokyo-based developer of autonomous driving technology, and Hinomaru Kotsu Co., said they are the first in the world to offer autonomous taxi services to fare-paying passengers in the test through Sept. 8.

Other tech companies and automakers have also been testing autonomous driving services in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. If the Tokyo RoboCar MiniVan trial is successful, officials hope to scale up the program to assist with the increased transportation demand during the 2020 Summer Olympics and, beyond that, help the rapidly ageing population in Japan's rural areas get around.

New York's iconic yellow cabs are slowly disappearing from city streets — and Uber is cashing in

2017-10-13T15:12:00-04:00

What seemed inevitable for quite some time now, has finally come to pass; Uber has overtaken yellow cabs in average daily ridership figures, the New York Times reports. This past July, Uber witnessed an average of 289,000 rides per day, whereas yellow cabs only managed 277,000.

More than half of Uber's rides start outside of Manhattan. Yellow and green cabs are not as accessible in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island and users prefer Uber and other ride-share apps. The company capitalized on this market by offering borough-specific promotions and moved its support and recruitment center outside of Manhattan.

Airbus promises autonomous flying taxis in the (very) near future

2016-08-26T14:12:00-04:00

Airbus appears to be serious about its "Vahana" project, aimed at creating an autonomous passenger drone network, and thinks testing can begin as early as 2017. [...] Airbus is also working on a drone delivery service [...] and plans to start testing it at a Singapore university by mid-2017. The cargo-laden vehicles fly automated routes in "aerial corridors," then drop them off and send delivery notifications to customers.

Airbus engineers are dreaming up no small endeavor as laid out in the company's Future of Urban Mobility vision:

"Imagine landing at a major international airport after a long flight in an A380. Instead of suffering through a 90-minute taxi ride in the megacity’s gridlocked traffic, you hop into an electrically operated aerial vehicle from zenHOP, which brings you to your destination – landing on your chosen zenHUB – in just nine minutes. Too expensive? No, zenMOVE has found three other travellers who also want to get to the city centre. As a result, the flight costs no more than a taxi ride. On top of that, no need to worry about your luggage – zenLUGGAGE takes care of that – or your security, as zenCYBER protects your flight against hacker attacks."

↑ Illustration of Airbus' Skyways drone parcel delivery service, which will enter test mode on the campus of the National University of Singapore in mid-2017.

Tokyo's 2020 Olympics won't have Zaha, but it's looking like there will be "Robot Taxi"

2015-11-02T19:24:00-05:00

Tokyo-based Robot Taxi ... is still on track to start field tests of its driverless taxi service in one region of Japan by the end of next March [...] The company, a joint venture between DeNA (one of Japan’s mobile internet pioneers) and ZMP (a robotics firm; tagline “Robot of Everything”) is not building its own cars from scratch. Instead, it’s focusing on adding driverless capabilities to existing cars and designing, creating, and marketing the taxi service.

More on the lead-up to Toky's 2020 Olympic Games:

Two Uber executives detained in France

2015-06-29T13:06:00-04:00

Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal and Uber Europe GM Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty were both taken into custody today in Paris [...] The two executives were charged with two different allegations. First, according to them, Uber is running illegal taxi operations. Uber has been struggling with this charge in many countries, starting with the U.S. Second, the police said that Uber France is concealing digital documents...

After protests last week turned violent, French authorities have detained two executives of the ride-sharing company Uber, although officials stated that they were brought into custody on charges unrelated to the protests. Uber is facing ferocious criticism in France, with taxi-drivers complaining that drivers for UberPOP don't have professional licenses and don't pay the same taxes as traditional car services. The conflict highlights tensions in France, a country with a long tradition of hard-fought labor rights, as it grapples with new technologies and economic models.

Last week's rioting, which resulted in 70 damaged cars, gained international attention in part due to tweets from Courtney Love, who found herself at the center of the melée, and sparked a lively discussion on Archinect.

The conversation oriented around issues of technological disruption, bureaucratic regulation and workers' rights, with some, like jla-x, drawing comparisons to architecture.

Donna Sink asked: "the co...

Taxis stop whining and start innovating to compete with Ubers of the world

2015-01-05T14:33:00-05:00

A little over a year ago, Seattle sought to determine the quality of TNCs like Uber and Lyft relative to taxi services, and the result was a stinging indictment of traditional taxis' speed, convenience, and ease of payment. [...] In response to competition from the Ubers and Lyfts of the world, taxi operators across the country have done more than complain about the loss of their monopoly on for-hire transportation ... and actually worked to improve service to be competitive

It's important to remember that in the midst of Uber's corporate gaffes and other criticisms of alternative Transportation Network Companies, taxi companies are struggling, but operating. And as Shane Phillips, Masters of Planning student at USC, points out in his Planetizen blog, a silver lining of Uber et al's practices is that they've forced taxis to improve services that "traditionally sucked", in order to be more competitive in an app-driven market.

Phillips cites cases in Los Angeles and Seattle, WA, where quantitative comparison of taxis to Uber/Lyft etc. clearly show taxis' disadvantages and weaknesses. In Seattle, comparing metrics like speed, service quality, and ease of payment, traditional taxi drivers clearly needed to, in Phillips words, "get [their] shit together". Both cities' taxi commissions are working on enforcing the use of e-hailing apps, which reduce wait times, ease payments, and hold drivers responsible through customer reviews.

In the end, Phillips encourages...

Will LA Finally Become A City of Cabs?

2014-12-16T15:14:00-05:00

According to the terms of the proposed draft order, every taxi in Los Angeles would have to become accessible via a mobile application similar to the ones used by Uber and Lyft. These applications will require certification by the Taxi Commission, which can then specify things like pricing maximums and limits on hours worked in a single shift, and can perhaps even set up a rating and complaint system for passengers.