Some New York City taxicabs are in for a major tech upgrade: iPads.
The New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission on Thursday gave the go-ahead to a pilot program, proposed by mobile payment company Square, to replace the televisions in 30 taxicabs with iPads. As part of the yearlong pilot program, set to begin in a few weeks, Square's payments technology will be deployed along with the shiny new tablets, giving riders the ability to swipe their credit card at any point during the trip.
With the new payment technology, passengers also will get the option of having their receipt emailed or texted to them. The iPads, meanwhile, will eventually provide a number of other perks — such as Internet access and games, though these features will not be available right away.
San Francisco-based Square, which was created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, offers a small plastic credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, allowing individuals businesses to accept credit card payments on their smartphone or tablet.
As part of the pilot program, drivers will be equipped with an iPhone to process the credit card payments, The New York Times reported. The new payment system costs drivers less in credit card transaction feed than the current rates.
"I can't wait to get back to NYC to use @Square in taxis!," Dorsey tweeted on Thursday. "Favorite feature: swipe your card anytime during the trip instead of at the end."
But not everyone is in favor of the change. Current taxi TV providers VeriFone and Creative Mobile opposed Square's proposal over concerns that hackers could install a malicious application on the device and capture riders' credit card numbers. As a compromise, the commission reduced the number of taxis to be included in the pilot from 50, as was initially proposed, to 30. The commission also allowed VeriFone and Creative Mobile Technologies to begin similar pilot programs with 30 taxis each.
Meanwhile, Square's technology is currently used to process more than $2 billion in payments annually. Recently, the Romney and Obama campaigns embraced Square for mobile donations, while The Salvation Army did the same over the holidays.
For more, see PCMag's full review of Square.