Getting into a taxi was a little like getting into a time machine this week.
A ticker-tape of headlines that runs along the bottom of TV screens in many yellow taxis displayed news items that were weeks old because of a technical snafu.
Jesse Davis, president of Creative Mobile Technologies, the company that runs the technical side of NY10, said the problem was a failure to communicate.
WNBC changed the source of its local news feed, but Davis’ company didn’t get the memo, so it didn’t make needed changes in the system.
Riders tuning into the latest happenings found not-so-breaking news from Oct. 26: the Giants beating the Steelers, the Jets besting the Chiefs and a car slamming into a Manhattan restaurant.
“It’s a technical glitch,” said Jennifer Vessio, a spokeswoman for NBC, which provides the news content for the taxi channel, known as NY10.
The result was old ticker headlines, though the on-air news updates from WNBC anchors – which are changed twice a day – remained fresh, he said.
He said the problem is easy to fix, and the local headlines should be current within a few days.
“The biggest concern anyone has is stale content,” Davis said of NY10, which plays in more than 5,000 cabs.
He said he learned of the problem from the Daily News, not riders, though the outdated feeds did catch the eye of some passengers.
“I have noticed,” said Vanessa Smith, 35, of Manhattan. “There have been the same headlines for two weeks.”
Charles Freeman, an investment banker working in midtown, said he wasn’t upset about the flub because he doesn’t rely on cabs for what’s happening in the world.
“I know that when I’m in the cab, the news is stale,” he said. “I’m just there to take a ride. The TV is just an added thing. I’m neutral.”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
RadioFreeTaxi 11.23.08 at 4:50 pm
Regulators, who ever mandated the CabTV, – they should have the same unit next to their comfortable chair and hear, day in and day out, just like drivers do 12 hours a day in a year around, and see and feel how able they focus on their job!
Jose 11.23.08 at 5:48 pm
Not only that but They should have it at a high volume like some nesty & uneducated riders do it with us. The only reason and probably the main one is profits for them but the only one and first reason They put it is to isolate the driver,us, because ,of course, I am a driver and i have to thake this shit every single day. It is to isolate us, to avoid We talk to the riders so people can consider us just as animals. That’s the policy…and that will be until We, all of us, wake up and say enough is enough. Jose
WhosyourDaddy 12.01.08 at 3:00 pm
Jose “nesty & uneducated riders” huh? I guess you spent your younger years in front a TV instead of studying and never learned to spell. That is why you are forced to drive a taxi for 12 hrs @ 9 dollars a hr and then you come on this website to vent all your anger with profanity against your slave masters… You are a nasty & uneducated driver!