Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 1
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
While driverless taxis will definitely appear in a few years already, Taxify will be relying on human drivers for still some time, Jevgeni Beloussov, Regional Expansion Manager at Taxify, told Trend on Aug. 1.
“Autonomous driving is an exciting field with lots of very strong players, but it will likely take years for markets to really be ready for self-driving cars,” Beloussov said.
He added that the company is keeping a close eye on the developments in this space, as platforms like Taxify will likely be the first customers for self-driving cars.
“We can’t go into details on new features, but we are working on a lot of things to improve the experience both for drivers and passengers,” Beloussov concluded.
Taxify is an international transportation network company, founded and headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. The service was launched in August 2013, and in 2014 it went on to foreign shores.
The company develops and operates the Taxify mobile application, which allows requesting a taxi or private driver from smartphone. Taxify was the first transportation app in the world to allow customers to pay for their trips via mobile carrier billing. In 2014, Taxify received award for best mobile app in Estonia. Taxify was also nominated as The Breakthrough of the Year 2014 for having the strongest impact on Estonian ICT sector.
In 2017, Taxify launched its services in London by acquiring a local taxi company with a licence to operate, but was forced by Transport for London to shut down its services. Taxify has filed a new licence application with plans to reopen services in London.
Following the setback in London, Taxify launched its services in Paris and Lisbon.
As of May 2018, Taxify operates in 25 countries and 40 cities in Europe, Africa, West Asia and Central America. The company has 10 million customers globally and more than 500,000 drivers use the platform to offer rides.
An autonomous car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Such cars combine a variety of techniques to perceive surroundings, including radar, laser light, GPS, odometry, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage.
The potential benefits of autonomous cars include reduced mobility and infrastructure costs, increased safety, increased mobility, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced crime. These benefits also include a potentially significant reduction in traffic collisions; resulting injuries; and related costs, including less need for insurance.
Autonomous cars are predicted to increase traffic flow; provide enhanced mobility for children, the elderly, disabled, and the poor; relieve travelers from driving and navigation chores; lower fuel consumption; significantly reduce needs for parking space; reduce crime; and facilitate business models for transportation as a service, especially via the sharing economy.
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