Well, it’s official: this is the future. It must be, as the Nissan NV200-based “Taxi of Tomorrow” is now being manufactured. The vehicle marks the culmination of a project run by the Taxi and Limousine Commission of New York City, in which taxi drivers, owners and passengers were asked to submit ideas for what features should go into a purpose-built NYC taxi cab.
The vehicle is being built at the Nissan assembly plant in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where the stock NV200 is also assembled. As outlined by the automaker, some of the things that make the Taxi of Tomorrow special – along with its yellow-and-black checkerboard paint job – include:
- Room for four passengers and their luggage
- Transparent roof panel
- Independently controlled rear air conditioning
- Active carbon-lined headliner to help neutralize interior odors, along with antimicrobial easy-to-clean seat fabric
- Overhead reading lights for passengers, and floor lighting to help locate belongings
- A mobile charging station for passengers, including a 12-volt electrical outlet and two USB ports
- Flat, "no hump" passenger floor area
- A low-annoyance horn with exterior lights that indicate when the vehicle is honking, so the horn is used less frequently
- Hearing loop system for the hearing impaired
- Driver and passenger intercom system
- Lights that alert other road users that taxi doors are opening
Additionally, according to Nissan, it is the “only taxi ever to be safety tested and certified with full taxi partition.”
Some people might be disappointed to learn, however, that the Taxi and Limousine Commission apparently doesn’t think that electric vehicles are the way to go – the Taxi of Tomorrow is powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder engine, albeit one that’s designed to be clean-running and fuel efficient. That being said, in a separate project, six Nissan Leaf EVs are being tried out as NYC taxis.
The Taxi of Tomorrow should be on the streets of New York as of this fall.
Source: Nissan
Seriously though, electric drive or otherwise, there is no substitute for a minivan/mini-bus when it comes to general people transport. 1. Ease of access 2. Low to the ground 3. Flat floor 4. Luggage capacity 5. Lots of passengers 6. Sliding door 7. High roof 8. And in some facing seats, so you can have a face to face conversation.
When driverless models come of age, with the advent of a fold out table, an ideal space to hold impromptu meetings or finishing off some work
Having gained a life from Shalehas and now from a virtual take over of Canadian Tarsands America has secured it's own energy needs into the future. It does not need to engage in oil wars. It can afford to set an example where the conservation of the Arctic and Rainforests are concerned ensuring the carbon and financial transaction taxes are directed at conserving these critical Earth biomes. Hydrocarbon industry is a dirty industry but we are all culprits to a greater or lesser extent. The industry itself needs to be taking the lead, with it's doppelganger the automotive industry, by setting example where example can be set and New York is surely the place to start. Once that ball gets rolling London and a raft of European cities might be expected to follow suit followed by a raft of North American cities. Are we really going to sit back and imagine that the day of reckoning will pass because it wont'. It will surely come and when it does New York will not just be flooded it will be destroyed. There will be no starting over. The scale of the damage will be so bad that all the insurance companies associated with the risk will go to the wall and the people so traumatised that they simply will not return. The city will become infested and remain a toxic environment for decades.
So the Taxi's are bright yellow, have USB ports and charge points. Are these bozos in Nissan and the Taxi and Limousine Commission for real? And as you point out the Nissan Leaf is there as a ready made alternative which is already being rolled out. Back to the drawing board I'm afraid or else start investing in water wings and diphtheria prevention. Nissan and the Taxi & Limousione Commission could lead the global switch to electric transport by making New York the flagship project. America's moral authority is bankrupt as we speak. This is one obvious way to restore lost credibility simple as home cooked apple pie. Why would they not take advantage of it?
@paulvcassidy Facebook.com/TransitionRegions
Ecowatch links: http://ecowatch.com/2013/coastal-cities-face-flood-damage-exceeding-1-trillion/ http://ecowatch.com/2013/world-petroleum-use-sets-record-high/ http://ecowatch.com/2013/leaked-science-report-climate/