New York City’s yellow taxi riders can now legally hail a cab with a smartphone app.
Tuesday evening, San Francisco-based Uber announced that its cab hailing services were approved for use throughout the city, a move that positions Uber as the first and only cab-hailing app currently approved for use in New York.
This follows a recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the livery car industry in New York, which opened the doors for app makers to offer electronic hailing of taxicabs throughout the city, a service Uber initially began testing last fall.
“The launch of Uber’s service is great news for New Yorkers and visitors to our city who want to quickly and conveniently get a taxi,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement.
The entry into e-hailing hasn’t been as seamless for all players in the space, however, as rival app maker Hailo was issued a notice from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for the unauthorized testing of a similar cab hailing app.
