Hack to the future

Post Staff Report

featured

Dec 18, 2013

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This is not your dad’s Checker cab! An Australian company yesterday unveiled a space-age prototype for a taxi that it hopes to see become the next city-approved cab design. Unicab

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Besides its radical shape, the all-electric Unicab boasts open space, low floors, a ramp for the disabled, and seats for up to seven passengers. Unicab

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Another feature would end the awkward shotgun seat for the front passenger. Renderings show the seat is spun around, letting a rider face friends as they rumble around the city, just as in the long-lamented Checker. Unicab

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Highly visible LED screens on the outside front windshield and side windows would inform potential passengers where the cab is headed and how many seats are available. Unicab

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That’s intended to work with the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s planned “ride share” initiative, in which a stranger can hail a cab heading in the same direction and split the fare with the other riders. Unicab

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The agency has requested proposals for designs for a “Taxi of Tomorrow.” But city officials would not confirm whether the Unicab company submitted a bid. The chosen model would replace most cabs by 2013. According to Unicab’s Web site, the design was created by Damian Lucaciu, a student in Melbourne. Unicab

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NYC TA The chosen model would replace most cabs by 2013. According to Unicab’s Web site. Unicab

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