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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

#101

Post by needle0 »

chrischen wrote: post #75
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.

It’s also the fastest of any contactless card I’ve ever used. Faster than Clipper, Taipei Metro card, and faster than apple pay. Even the iPhone integration is fast.

https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/11497078/ This (Japanese) article is an interesting read about the speed of FeliCa cards, the contactless tech Suica is based on. The speed requirement that was used when designing FeliCa was that transactions were to complete within 200 msecs, while cards in London for instance only required 250ms-500ms.

While this may be overkill performance for other countries, the number was derived from Japan Railways’ rush hour statistics and simulations, which made their target to be processing 60 passengers per minute at the gate.

As Japan has one of the highest train station utilization in the world, using contactless systems like MiFare etc. to make iPhone train payment work would probably clog the gates and not be realistic; hence, when iPhone 7 began supporting station payments in Japan, Apple supported FeliCa instead of the other way around. (The fact that smartphone users here disproportionately favor iPhone over Android also probably helped.)

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#102

Post by teachrdan »

cwkoss wrote: post #84
teachrdan wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a longtime Japan traveler, I recommend picking up business cards (called "shop cards" in Japan) for basically anywhere you go, because: 0. Japanese business cards often have beautiful design. 1. They are a good way to remember the cool places you visit. 2. They often have a map on the back that show you how to walk there from the nearest train station(s). 3. They have the address on the front, which you can show y…

What is the japanese word for "shop cards"? Mise Meishi?

Literally you can just say, "Shoppu Kaado arimasuka?" (do you have any shop cards?)

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#103

Post by franciscop »

mulmen wrote: post #66
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.

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.

As comented on other thread:

Pro tip I didn't learn until embarrasingly late, they can recharge it in many (all?) places that they accept it, especially in convinis. Just say "charji" and give them money + tap it.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#104

Post by franciscop »

chrischen wrote: post #75
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.

It’s also the fastest of any contactless card I’ve ever used. Faster than Clipper, Taipei Metro card, and faster than apple pay. Even the iPhone integration is fast.

About the design or Suica:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/development/tech/pdf_6/Tec-06-40-...

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#105

Post by brianbreslin »

teachrdan wrote: post #81
brianbreslin wrote: post #45

I went to Japan last year and speak rudimentary japanese. One big challenge for taxi use was always explaining where I needed to go. If I could have plugged in the address in an app, I would have saved myself some confusion. That said, the Tokyo taxi drivers know the city better than any driver I've ever seen ever. GPS is almost a complete waste on them.

As a longtime Japan traveler, I recommend picking up business cards (called "shop cards" in Japan) for basically anywhere you go, because: 0. Japanese business cards often have beautiful design. 1. They are a good way to remember the cool places you visit. 2. They often have a map on the back that show you how to walk there from the nearest train station(s). 3. They have the address on the front, which you can show y…

Yeah I agree on that front, but that requires you to have gone to the place once. For a new visitor that doesn't make sense. HOWEVER this does raise an interesting opportunity to build a little saas that generates digital versions of these shop cards for people.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#106

Post by magduf »

astrange wrote: post #88
magduf wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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, knowin…

> 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. There are a few scam stores in Tokyo, there's one that sells paintings to tourists, another one with monks that go around pushing things into your hands, and supposedly some ripoff girls b…

>Oh, but you can't get food substitutes in any restaurants and they'll deal with allergies by kicking you out of the store.

Yes, I saw several restaurants that warned that they don't change their recipe. It makes sense: they've optimized their process in the kitchen for those particular dishes, and aren't going to just change things around for one customer. It didn't seem to be a big problem there. So I just have to wonder: why do so many Americans these days have food allergies? This wasn't a problem decades ago. From a little bit of Googling, it seems that Japanese just don't have problems with food allergies the way Americans do. Honestly, they're right to kick you out of the store: you're too much of a liability, and they just aren't prepared to deal with people with such problems.

>https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/01/language-japanese-store....

I have no idea what your point is here. This is an article about the level of politeness to be used by retain employees (the Japanese language has several levels of politeness built-in). I wasn't talking about any details about the usage of the language by employees, I was just talking about them being polite in general, something you don't see in American stores much.

Re: Sony launches a taxi-hailing app in Tokyo

#107

Post by enz »

munmaek wrote: post #79
wiggler00m wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Fees: Suica does not charge users merchant fees. Contrast that with a credit card, which charge fees as a % of transactions. Some credit cards with contactless functionality (eg. PayWave) charge a higher % if you use the contactless method rather than inserting or swiping. If you like money, well, you get more of it by using Suica. You do have to pay a 500 JPY deposit (refundable) when you first obtain the card. Y…

Suica was awesome in tokyo, but I wasn't able to use it in Osaka unfortunately. Other than that, I love it. I had the card originally but I switched to just using my phone.

Suica is produced by JR East. In Osaka, what about the equivalent card produced by JR West?
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