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Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

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Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#61

Post by Roujo »

magduf wrote: post #58
toomuchtodo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American here. What makes "suica" a superior contactless payment method? EDIT: Thanks for the replies! Seems it's a more full featured version of Chicago's Ventra card.

Lots of places in Japan don't take Visa/Mastercard, so it's either Suica/Pasmo or cash. There's tons of vending machines, for instance, but they don't take credit cards, but a lot of them do take Suica. Suica is basically a debit card; you put money on it (there's terminals at all the subway stations) and then spend it on the subway/train fares and also at other places that accept it, like vending machines, taxis, an…

> The only thing I didn't like about Suica/Pasmo when I was in Japan was that, unlike a credit card, there doesn't seem to be a way to get a statement so you can see where you spent all your money

I use Suikakeibo [0] for that. The latest 20-ish transactions seem to be stored on the card, so by scanning it using my phone every day I could keep a history of everything I used it for. You can even put in notes, since non-transit transaction don't list what you bought with it - just the amount.

It makes for a nice reminder of my past trips. =)

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.mediavrog....

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#62

Post by [deleted] »

magduf wrote: post #58
toomuchtodo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American here. What makes "suica" a superior contactless payment method? EDIT: Thanks for the replies! Seems it's a more full featured version of Chicago's Ventra card.

Lots of places in Japan don't take Visa/Mastercard, so it's either Suica/Pasmo or cash. There's tons of vending machines, for instance, but they don't take credit cards, but a lot of them do take Suica. Suica is basically a debit card; you put money on it (there's terminals at all the subway stations) and then spend it on the subway/train fares and also at other places that accept it, like vending machines, taxis, an…

[deleted]

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#63

Post by smeyer »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #29
CPLX wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve only been in Tokyo once ten years ago but I remember the regular taxis there being staggeringly expensive. Are app based rides really more expensive than that?

I think a big part of what makes them expensive is the massive distances you may have to travel in Tokyo. Distances you often don't realise how large they are when using the awesome public transportation offerings. Price per kilometer & wait time seems higher in Zurich, for example.

>Price per kilometer & wait time seems higher in Zurich, for example

I think Zurich is just a particularly expensive example. At least in the US, most places seem a lot cheaper (I checked New York, Chicago, and San Francisco). Of the few cities I checked in Europe, London is comparable but Paris, Berlin, and Rome are closer to the US examples.

Numbers come from numbeo such as https://www.numbeo.com/taxi-fare/in/Tokyo?displayCurrency=US... and https://www.numbeo.com/taxi-fare/in/New-York, just swap the city name for the other cities I mentioned.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#65

Post by magduf »

pmjordan wrote: post #39
hi5eyes wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Uber service itself has a sort of a 'premium' feeling around therein lies their brand proposition >I come into contact with the brand much more often from the context of Uber Eats. ubers worth is their international recognition as a premium service

> ubers worth is their international recognition as a premium service Anecdotal perhaps, but that's not my impression among friends & family. (based in Central & Western Europe) Unless you consider "less likely to be totally ripped off" as "premium". Which I guess it is to some extent, but taxi drivers in many western countries have set the bar so extremely low in terms of service that competing services such as Uber…

>taxi drivers in many western countries have set the bar so extremely low in terms of service

>In Japan meanwhile... you literally get the white glove treatment in any run-of-the mill taxi and screwing people over totally goes against the grain of the local culture

This is the stuff that the anti-Uber crowd just didn't seem to understand. Taxis in America will routinely screw you over and drive you in circles, knowing that you probably don't know any better, just to increase your fare, and the customer service level is abominable. Japan just isn't like this: screwing customers over is just something they don't do there, and having extremely high customer service with incredible levels of politeness is just the norm there, even in simple convenience stores.

Uber got where it did in America because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible, so all it took was someone competing with them and not being as horrible and offering decent service to become wildly popular. The same situation never existed in Japan.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#66

Post by mulmen »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #57
franciscop wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love paying with a suica for taxi and basically anything, I've stopped taking any taxi that does not accept it and I'm considering changing my laundry place just because of this.

American here. What makes "suica" a superior contactless payment method? EDIT: Thanks for the replies! Seems it's a more full featured version of Chicago's Ventra card.

It works everywhere instantly (just tap) and you can reload it with cash in almost any train station or convenience store. I doubt there is part of Tokyo that is more than 5 minutes from a place to load your suica/pasmo card.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#68

Post by magduf »

Roujo wrote: post #61
magduf wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of places in Japan don't take Visa/Mastercard, so it's either Suica/Pasmo or cash. There's tons of vending machines, for instance, but they don't take credit cards, but a lot of them do take Suica. Suica is basically a debit card; you put money on it (there's terminals at all the subway stations) and then spend it on the subway/train fares and also at other places that accept it, like vending machines, taxis, an…

> The only thing I didn't like about Suica/Pasmo when I was in Japan was that, unlike a credit card, there doesn't seem to be a way to get a statement so you can see where you spent all your money I use Suikakeibo [0] for that. The latest 20-ish transactions seem to be stored on the card, so by scanning it using my phone every day I could keep a history of everything I used it for. You can even put in notes, since no…

Wow, thanks! I'll be sure to use this next time I go there!

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#69

Post by dmix »

citruspi wrote: post #17
ginko wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> feel the Uber service itself has a sort of a 'premium' feeling around it in Japan, with the cars/staff/pricing being higher-class than the run-of-the-mill taxis you can hail. Isn't the average Japanese taxi some big Toyota Crown sedan already? How much more premium than that can you go?

> Isn't the average Japanese taxi some big Toyota Crown sedan already? How much more premium than that can you go? Toyota Century :) https://www.wsj.com/articles/japans-new-emperor-picks-his-ri... Edit: Super short TL;DR from the article > Introduced in 1967, the Century isn’t for the flashy or hasty. Prospective customers can wait months because Toyota hand-builds each one. Background checks ensure the buyer is of a…

I love that quote about Yakuza. It’s so Japanese.

Reminds me of mobsters in America driving Cadillac’s and how much that probably helped sales. I know my dad loved watching mob movies and bought a Cadillac in the 90s that was straight out of the movies.

I’m curious if there was a badass motivation there similar to middle class suburbanites owning a Harley style motorcycle.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#70

Post by Grue3 »

Who needs a taxi in Tokyo anyway? Can someone make a taxi-hailing app for inaka (Japanese countryside/less populated areas). You usually need to call a local taxi company there, but it's difficult to get a voice call SIM card for a foreign visitor. If you could get a taxi at a precise point of the map without having to somehow call and explain your whereabouts on the phone, it would be nothing short of a revolution.
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