VITAMEDIAS
Circle the Block, Cabby, My Show's On: In New York, 223 million riders spent $918 million in 12,187 yellow cabs in 2001. The average trip covered 2.64 miles and lasted nearly 15 minutes. All that time, half a billion eyeballs were left with nothing to do except look out the window.
It was only a matter of time before television came to the taxi.
After years of lobbying, the Taxi and Limousine Commission agreed in September to run a pilot program allowing seven companies to offer some form of television in the back seats of yellow cabs. The first "enhanced" cabs have just started hitting the road, with 178 now on the street. Company officials are optimistic that televisions will be in several thousand cabs in the coming months.[...]
Of the seven systems being tried now, six are intended to make money from advertising. Two of the models use interactive technology that will allow riders to do things like find movie times and restaurant information while bumping down Second Avenue. The five others look more like regular television. [...]
For some New Yorkers, the televisions, even muted, eliminate one of the few remaining places of public privacy. "I had to go about 25 blocks and my driver didn't speak English," said Jennifer Briggs, 28, a Manhattan resident. "I had heard about the TV's but hadn't actually seen one, so I got distracted by the thing and didn't realize we were going the wrong way."