It's no secret that Uber has taken a chunk of business away from traditional city taxi cabs, especially in New York where Mayor Bill de Blasio has been an outspoken opponent of the ride-hailing app. The new smartphone app Arro is now the latest effort to help the New York taxi industry fight back.
Arro is a free smartphone app that allows users to hail and pay for yellow and green taxi rides in New York. To hail a cab, users can open the app and press the "Need a Taxi" button, and the cab will pick them up wherever they may be with the driver receiving the passenger's name, pickup address and cross streets. Users can also pay for their cab fare through Arro, even if they hailed the cab the old-fashioned way.
After a development process that lasted for 18 months, Arro is now being beta-tested in 7,000 cabs in New York and is scheduled to launch publicly in a couple of weeks, according to Crain's New York Business, which first reported the launch of the app. When it does officially launch, Arro will be compatible with 20,000 yellow and green taxis in New York.
As Crain's New York Business points out, Arro is very similar to a service Uber already provides called UberT. However, where Arro differs from Uber could give it a leg up on the competition.
Unlike Uber, Arro has no surge pricing, which increases Uber fares during times of high demand. The other difference is that Arro is integrated right into the actual vehicle in the driver's data terminal at the front of the cab, thanks to a partnership with Creative Mobile Technologies, which operates the payment systems and video screens in about half of the 13,000-plus yellow cabs in New York. On the other hand, Uber drivers receive e-hails through the app on their smartphones mounted at the front of their cars.
Arro is currently only available in New York, but there are plans to launch the app in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C. next, according to the app's website. Consumers can sign up to get the app through Arro's website.
Via: The Verge
