Hey guys,

So it's been a while since I reread the NAGRL (or SOTA for that matter), but I was wondering about the status of taxis and cabbies in the SR4 setting. This is for a piece of fan fiction I've been working on (excerpt below). Just wondering if someone in the dumpshock community could update me on this topic.

Thanks!

--------
The first robocabs came out decades ago, after the First Crash. They were largely a local experiement in a few Asian tiger economies’ pop-up cities, where the first grid power systems were installed – back before infrastructure and basic service hacking became a major problem. The cabs were largely a success for their low cost, convenience and ease of integration into city life. Later on, people began to remark on their courteousness, when they started to roll out the next few generations in major Western metro areas – generally, the cabs were fitted with a basic expert system that help tailor the interior lighting, music (if applicable) and even driving style to each individual customer. Not that it lasted.

Anyway.

The cabs where smallish vehicles with a basic sensor, GPS, and grid guide package. They also featured wi-fi… you know, all of the basics. The general advantage was that there weren’t any human drivers to contend with: they didn’t drive like maniacs, they didn’t try to cheat you mby taking a longer route than necessary and they didn’t try to chat you up while you were hungover.

The first cabs were a huge intial success, so the thought was to roll them out into Western cities. The only problem was that these other cities already had cabbies – lots of them. In unions. The ensuing riots that accompanied rollouts in New York, Karachi and San Francisco lasted for weeks, in some cases. One chapter of the International Brotherhood of Transportation Workers actually firebombed the Daewoo plant in Montana that built most of the robocabs in North America, killing 11 flesh-and-blood human workers on the assembly line. What followed was a systematic crackdown on cabbie unions nationwide. The automakers had found an additional revenue stream through cabs that were cheaper to build, but that they could charge the cab companies the same amount of money for. The traditional cab company changed from a vehicle fleet and dispatching service to a managed system, like faster, alternative public transportation system. Innovation followed, and soon citizens were able to buy monthly or weekly passes good for a certain number of rides or miles. Conglomerates and networks were formed. Buyouts and price wars became commonplace. Whole cities’ light rail and bus services were put out of commission by the robocabs and robovans.

Customers loved them, too. The cabs offered privacy andconvenience. You generally knew how long it would take you to get somewhere, basedon constantly-updated traffic data. The drivers were safe, the cars could clean themselves and city regulators made sure that the cabs weren’t programmed to rip you off. Also, in the event of medical emergency, the cabs could patch into the emergency network and would be expedited to the Some premium companies offered food and beverages in their cars. Others offered amenities like car seat massages and concierge services. The street buses weren’t missed.

It didn’t take long, however, to find some problems with the system. For instance, it didn’t take long until a number of exploits were found, particularly in the first few generations of robocars. Sometimes, the cars would just disappear without a trace, disappearing into backalley chop shops or fly-by-night recycling centers. Other times, they were used for more nefarious purposes. In Jakarta in 2025, the Black Hand Martyrs Brigade used a commandeered fleet of autocycle pedicaps and turned them in to roving bombs, attacking government targets and foreigners. The famous Western Avenue killer converted a robocab into his own version of a “chop shop” and had terrorized the city of Chicago two years earlier. That’s to say nothing about simple vandalism like shredding, burning or puking on the interior of the vehicle. Nonpayment was another issue, with simple image recognition-based blacklists being easily spoofed. Some second-generation cabs would lock nonpaying customers inside until the police arrived, but it turns out that cops do actually have better things to do than prosecute delinquent fares. After the first few fatalities, the whole system fell apart. In an effort to maximize profits, many cab companies began to use algorithms that profiled riders based on their likely destination, likelihood of payment and potential for doing expensive and bad things to the vehicles. Before long, entire neighborhoods or even demographic strata in some cities found themselves unable to get a cab. In countries with more oppressive governments or lasses-faire privacy laws, cab companies would record their customers’ activities or even phone conversations. Before long, the cultured Englsih accents, promotional giveaway tie-ins with local beverage companies and mood lighting gave way to to little gray boxes of urban mobility, with just enough protection to cover legal liability and just enough of an unwelcoming air to discourage passengers from lingering after the ride concluded. Instead of compact boxes of transportation efficiency, riders were left with essentially the same problems they began with.

I'd say that seems to match up acceptably with the canon from Arsenal and Runner's Companion (some of even matches exactly).

Exepct when they're a private corporation that the tax company pay to do that, then they really dont have anythink better to do as thats the only think they're payed to do.

Unions!!! In SR!!! No way can't buy it, not with the megas being around never.

Something is missing there.