Tag: geolocation tech

NYC taxis to use geolocation technology for fare calculation

| October 26, 2015

The meters will start using GPS tech in order to boost their competition against Lyft and Uber.

A new pilot program is about to begin with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in which it will be using geolocation technology within the fare meters in about 1,000 of its yellow cabs throughout the city.

The intention is also to take away the annoying “Taxi TVs” to replace them with a new type of payment system.

There are currently about 13,500 cabs in New York City that are reliant on a range of different devices that will track idle times and the number of times a wheel turns in order to help to calculate a fare. This system will be replaced in 1,000 of them as a part of a pilot program testing out geolocation technology based meters that will use GPS. In those cabs, the familiar red digits in the meters on the dashboards will be gone and a whole new system will have replaced them.

The length of the geolocation technology based meters is going to run for about a year and will be smaller than predicted.

Geolocation Technology - NYC TaxisInitially, the plan had been to involve 4,000 cabs in the pilot, but that was reduced by a quarter. The cabs participating in this trial of the technology may also have a replacement of a number of other pieces of equipment including the TaxiTV, the credit card reader, the taximeter, and the vehicle location system, among other things. All of this will be replaced by a smartphone or tablet that will be used in order to calculate the fare as well as to collect the payment at the end of the trip.

According to the commission’s chairperson, Meera Joshi, “Ultimately it is to create a more nimble system.” This pilot program has also been designed to help to upgrade the entire experience of taking a cab and is a direct response to the threat posed by app based ride share services such as Uber and Lyft.

There will be up to four companies that will be selected for participation in the geolocation technology using pilot program. Each of those companies will have the new mobile payment technology installed into 250 of its cabs.

iBeacon tech to boost Pittsburgh Penguins fan experience

| September 21, 2015

This will be the result of a new partnership into which the NHL team has recently entered for this purpose.

The Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team has now entered into a new partnership with Rover, a proximity marketing firm that will be using iBeacon technology to help to enhance the experience for fans.

The idea is to use the geolocation technology in conjunction with the use of the Rover proximity platform.

There is already existing iBeacon tech installed at the stadium and by bringing this together with the proximity platform at Rover, it will become possible to create a beacon-triggered experience for fans. This will send them content that is location specific by way of the Penguins app. Fans who have the app on their smartphones will be able to access exclusive content when they attend games at the CONSOL Energy Center during the length of the 2015 to 2016 season.

As soon as fans with the mobile app step into the arena, the iBeacons will provide an “at the game experience.”

iBeacon - Consol Energy CenterOnce fans are in the arena, the beacon-triggered content is released, greeting the device users with special content. Once they reach the Mario Lemieux statue, an interactive experience is launched and they are provided with various types of discounts and offers for concessions.

According to Erik Watts, the senior director of technology for the Penguins, “We are excited to partner with Rover. Rover makes it easy for us to deliver relevant content to fans, and provides us with a platform to which we can have input and help develop an experience that is exciting and engaging for our fans and corporate partners.” While they started to successfully use the geolocation technology beacons for the 2014-2015 season, this year they are hoping to be able to “take it to the next level,” with the added advantage provided by Rover.

Rover CEO, John Coombs explained that the company is hoping to eliminate the complexity that is associated with the use of iBeacons and location based marketing, and will continue its evolution on making it simpler to take advantage of the power of this tech.