Ever had that experience of fumbling around for money in your wallet or bag in a frantic attempt to pay and scramble out of a taxi quickly? That torture might soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new system that will simplify the whole process into just one tap.
VeriFone, a company that specializes in taxi systems and payments, unveiled Way2ride, a wireless payment system that makes use of your smartphone, something you presumably always have out in your hand anyway, to pay for taxi fares. Users pre-load payment and tip information into the app and, once they get into a taxi, simply tap or hold their phone in front of a TaxiTV screen and wait for a notification to complete the check-in. Once the ride is over, the user checks on the screen if the payment has been made and simply gets out.
What is somewhat intriguing with this system is that, despite the tapping gesture, Way2ride doesn’t make use of NFC technology nor Bluetooth. Instead, it uses VeriFone’s patented Zoosh system which uses smartphones’ speakers and microphones for making secure exchanges. This has the benefit of making the technology available to devices without NFC.
While the app is already available in the Google Play Store, the system is only implemented in New York City so far. VeriFone plans on eventually rolling out Way2ride to cover more than 70,000 taxis worldwide.
SOURCE: Business Wire
So you have to have the app open while in the taxi? If it listens, it either has to be open or always listening in the background (wasting your battery). Not as elegant as NFC…