Those dreaded battles in traffic trying to flag down a passing taxi will soon be a thing of past horrific nightmares. ZabKab is the first TLC approved app for hailing yellow cabs.
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The app comes in two versions -- one for drivers and one for passengers. The passenger version lets the user hit a "hail" button that signals cabs in a four to five block radius. Passengers can also see cabs move on the map in real time; a yellow cab on the map is free, a gray cab is taken.
The app runs on GPS and gives drivers a precise location of where the passenger is hailing from -- even which side of the street they are on.
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ZabKab does not allow for communication between driver and rider -- thus meeting TLC regulations -- so drivers won't know your destination address or be able to tell you that they are coming. Mostly, the app works to give drivers a bird's eye view of the neighborhood to easily find patrons and not waste time driving around empty.
"A lot of passengers become conditioned to walk to a major corner or avenue, so a lot of cabs just run up and down avenues and not on side streets or burrows," Martin Heikel --co-creator of ZabKab -- tells Mashable. "Now a passenger can just stay put and their presence will be known to drivers."
The general app's concept is no novel idea. Uber , SideCar and GetTaxi use similar smartphone apps to dispatch cars at a patrons request. But ZabKab stands out because they are not dispatching cars from private services, but instead integrating the
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