Square wants iPads embedded in taxis

If you have plans to visit New York City, you should make a point of hopping into a cab at some point. Not because you might make it on the Discovery Channel game show Cash Cab, but because it might have an iPad embedded into the back console that you can play with during your ride. That is, if Square’s Jack Dorsey has his way. He wants tablets to become commonplace in taxi cabs so that credit card payments are done through his platform.

Square, of course, has become one of the most popular companies for small businesses because of its smartphone software that allows individuals to accept physical credit card payments. And it doesn’t cost the user anything; they just have to pay a credit card fee. Right now, Dorsey is trying to convince the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to make Square the primary method of credit card payments in cabs. And with iPads embedded into cabs, riders will be able to do things like check into Foursquare, get the latest reviews for wherever they’re heading, and of course check their current location on a map.
In a New York Times quote, Taxi & Limousine Commission chairman David Yassky seemed enthusiastic about the idea. Right now, every yellow can in New York City has a TV for passengers to watch, but it’s a loop of the same several minutes of content over and over again. And many riders don’t even realize the TV is touchscreen, though this functionality is not being used to its fullest extent at all. A formal meeting between Square and the TLC has been scheduled for March 1. If you want iPads in your taxis, keep your fingers crossed.