Normally, tourists at the airport of a big city carrying armfuls of luggage and a tourist map are easy targets for dishonest taxi drivers – and Madrid is no exception. So to make your visit a little less stressful Alberto Naranjo, an internet entrepreneur and mobile technology director from Barrabés Internet, has developed Taxi Madrid, an iPhone app [link to iTunes] that calculates taxi fares. The app uses GPS to determinate your current location and will calculate the expected fare, time and route to your destination.
The app has been developed in English, but there will be future versions in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Japanese, new cities supported, and – more interestingly – a social review system for Taxi Companies, which actually has a lot more potential that you might think. Imagine if you could rate and share info on Taxi services globally?
The app uses GPS to determinate your current location and will calculate the expected fare, time and route to your destination. It includes a useful guide for using Taxis cabs in Madrid for tourism and business. Next week the Taxi Barcelona app. will be released. The app has been developed in English, but he is already working in future versions in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Japanese, new cities support, and a Social review system for Taxi Companies.
Taxi Madrid’s main features include a phone listing of the better taxi companies in Madrid; a complete Madrid “official fares” support (even with special airport supplements, trade fairs etc); multi currency support; location; integration with iPhone Maps and a bunch more.
Taxi Madrid for iPhone is the first app from a collection of Taxi Fares Calculator applications for smartphones as iPhone, Android, Nokia and next Palm Pre, designed to make tourism in Madrid much easier (and cheaper).
If you want to try the app for free, we have 10 Promotional coupons for Taxi Madrid, which will go out to the first ten people to comment on this post (but they are only for the US Apple store so far, alas).
However, there is if course one small issue. We can’t vouch for what will happen to your iPhone when you show it to the taxi driver to try and negotiate the bill down…
Would love to test out this app – and revisit Madrid a year later to see whether the honesty of taxi drivers has changed. Istanbul’s another city I’d like a version for…
Very interesting. Something that is well overdue. I’d love to test it too.
Brilliant.
But explaining in Spanish to your Madrid taxi driver that he’s ripped you off because your iPhone says so might be a bit tricky.
Perhaps there’s an app for that too..
I have to say in defense of taxi drivers from Madrid that they improved service a lot in last few years, and they are usually honest.
The most dangerous trip maybe is the airport to center route. Just check out it with the app!
Interesting!
Plans for an app for Blackberry?
BB support is in roadmap
Sounds like a cracking app, particularly useful for non-natives. The social features sound similar to http://www.cabchap.com.
thanks god for this iPhone app
no taxi will ripped me off in madrid
il take one
I can see almost all promotional coupons are given… So I’m giving some more anybody who asked me via Twitter at @veilkrand
Cheers!
this app looks like a good idea, however i found this app http://www.edovia.com/rockettaxi/ quite a bit more interesting as it’s not a region-specific tool so you can use it while you travel!
it’s got currency options to view in many different countries and uses a built-in map API with 3.0 firmware to view the trip-distance.
take a look!
Sincerely, I won’t trust a “world support” app to calculate local fares.
Taxi Madrid is just this, an app optimized for traveling Madrid on taxi with official fares model support and local companies review system. That’s vertical specialized vs horizontal generic app.
Sorry for the self promotion, but I had to jump at this.
A Taxi Fares Calculator is exactly what worldtaximeter is. Ok, it’s a web based app, but it includes a mobile-friendly version.
It has been around for more than a year now, and it covers a few cities, including Madrid and Barcelona (and London).
We’ve been trying to find time to develop an iPhone and an Android app for ages now, but being it a side-project doesn’t help. Shame on us anyway that we didn’t do it yet!
Few things Taxi Madrid for iPhone do and worldtaximeter don’t:
* It uses GPS/wifi/cell to localize your actual address
* It uses a review system for companies
* It will be able to order & tracking taxi order online
Soz anyway for answering every comment… !
Fair enough.
Something else Taxi Madrid for iPhone does and worldtaximeter doesn’t:
* charge for using it; worldtaximeter is free
so if you’re cab driver is ripping you off–what do you do? I am going to both Madrid and barcelona this summer–I’d like to try these free!
I live in Madrid and am American. I have only run into a problem once where the cab driver knew I was foreign (even though I speak Spanish, the accent gives it away) and he thought he could rip me off. He took me the LONGEST way possible to my house and tried to charge me DOUBLE the normal fare. I explained this to him, paid him what it should have cost me and got out. He knew he was wrong and didn’t even try to argue with me. He took the money and left. You HAVE to be tough with them.
If you’ll permit a little open source framework pimpage, that app was built using http://www.phonegap.com.
I’ve released “CabFare”. It will calculate fares based on GPS coordinates also, depending on the information you enter. It is not country specific, but the few words are in English and units are in miles.
is there anything like this for a laptop?
cause i have a gps system in my laptop and i travel a lot with it