California Approves Flywheel, the App That Makes Taxis Work Like Uber

Flywheel, an app for booking regular taxis, got the green light from California regulators Tuesday to offer its TaxiOS technology to cab owners to replace the current, outdated jumble of meters, dispatch, advertising, navigation systems and credit card readers. The new technology, which runs on a single, cloud-enabled smartphone, is being pitched as a way to help the traditional taxi industry regain market share lost to ride-hailing companies. Or, as Flywheel put it, “California has finally set a level playing field for taxis in their war against Uber.”

The decision by the Golden State’s Division of Measurement Standards, which regulates commercial measuring devices like taxi meters, to allow taxi owners to use Flywheel’s app comes after a successful pilot program in San Francisco. Now all California taxis have the option to use Flywheel, where the company has approval to operate throughout the state for one year pending full type certification.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We have a request

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

1. Advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan.

2. We’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — we believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

It’s important that we have several ways we make money, and that’s why we ask readers for help keeping Vox free. Our goal today is for 47 Vox readers to pledge an annual financial gift to Vox to help us keep our work free for everyone. Will you become one of them?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via