New Yorkers' cab rides may actually get a little quieter.
New York City's Taxi & Limousine Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve a pilot program that will remove the TV screens from the backseat of a number of taxicabs and replace them with new technology for riders to use to make credit card payments, The New York Post reports. The commission is now looking for vendors to build alternative platforms for passengers to pay by credit card and to display trip information, which includes the possibility of drivers handing passengers a smartphone or tablet with a credit card reader, according to a New York Times report published earlier this week.
"I do believe that technology has improved, that we should explore pilots such as this," TLC commissioner Edward Gonzales told The New York Daily News. "Customers' preferences for payments and content and things like that change over time."
Taxi TVs have been used to allow passengers to make credit card payments in the backseats of cabs since 2007. However, their broadcasting of clips from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to Broadway show advertisements to local weather reports have irked many taxi riders and drivers alike over the years.
The New York Times originally reported that the pilot program would be limited to 4,000 vehicles out of about 13,500 yellow taxicabs for now, but the goal is to remove Taxi TVs entirely. The pilot program is expected to run for about a year.
