Berlin – Iran: Taxi is the big winner Taxi Times Update 2015-02-19

What`s new in the taxi world? Our bilingual ‘update’ summarises the international news of the last days and hours. As some of the links are in foreign languages, we recommend using a website translator.

International News

Berlin Film Festival: Panahi’s Taxi wins Golden Bear: A film by dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi has won the Golden Bear, the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize. Taxi is Panahi’s third film since he was banned from making films by the Iranian authorities and forbidden from travelling in 2010. It was filmed covertly as the director drove a taxi around Tehran.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31475783

Marching protest: Several hundred Italian taxi drivers protested in Turin on Tuesday against an ‘Uber’-friendly court order.

http://www.thelocal.it/20150217/over-2000-italian-taxi-drivers-in-uber-protest

Quote of the day

„Je suis taxi legale“

This was the text on several banners seen during the Turin taxi demonstration against Uber.

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/world/2015/02/17/23550879/

Nissan Leaf in Ireland, BYD e6 in China: Thirty BYD taxis are already operating exclusively on electricity in the city of Xiamen, while the first and only e-taxi is now operating in the Irish city of Cork.

http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news38337.html

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/meet-the-driver-of-corks-first-electric-taxi-311199.html

Electric and autonomous: Dubai is planning to introduce a battery-powered, self-driving car at Expo 2020.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/government/rta-embarks-on-study-of-using-driverless-cars-1.1456697

Pakete per Tax-App: Sidecar announced on Monday it plans to use its fleet of cars to introduce a package delivery service, delivering items like food and groceries for partner companies.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/sidecar-a-ride-hailing-start-up-pushes-into-package-delivery/

News from Germany

Taxi apps are gaining ground: A representative survey conducted by BITCOM in Germany shows that 10 per cent of younger taxi users only hail taxis via app. The survey also showed that only half of the country’s citizens take taxis.

http://www.bitkom.org/de/presse/8477_81481.aspx

News from Switzerland

Withdrawal in Zurich: Dolores Zanini and the rest of the board of Taxi Sektion Zurich have announced their withdrawal. Upon their departure, critical statements against their colleagues, the city and the taxi commission appeared in the media.

http://www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/zuerich/wegen-mafioesen-zustaenden-und-uber-zuercher-taxi-chefin-schmeisst-hin-id3487092.html