Tokyo Welcomes Sony’s Taxi-Hailing Service

Sony is now present in Japan’s transportation landscape with its new taxi-hailing service called S.Ride.

The service comes with technical support, the Minna no Taxi app which allows users to call S. Ride. taxis. They have payment alternatives that vary from cash to credit card, and even a QR code-powered digital wallet.

The service is simple, smart, and speedy, and uses AI technology to anticipate highest demands by areas in order to distribute drivers suitably.

Mina No Taxi Corporation was founded in 2018, by Sony Payment Services, Sony Corp. itself, with the help of six taxi companies, including Tokyo’s biggest operators, Daiwa and Kokusa. Also, Sony expects the total size of the fleet to be about 10,000 cars.

S.Ride’s competitor on the market could potentially be JapanTaxi. The app is run by Ichiro Kawanabe, Nihon Kotsu CEO and chairman of Japan’s taxi federation. Other than that, there are no threats for S.Ride’s taxi-hailing service market, Uber being only a small competitor in Japan, with just premium black cars in Tokyo.