Hi Anthony,

Rather curiously,the same association (with the same images) was brought up in the very first comment at the bottom of that webpage. :-) (It might be hard to read the comments because of the language, but the image is easy.)


Cheers,

Igor

 Anthony Farr Fri, 12 Oct 2018 21:00:54 -0700 wrote:

It reminds me of the Johnny Cab from the first 'Total Recall' movie.
http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/article_width/public/johnnycab.jpg?itok=mMLIwb0j


regards, Anthony


On Fri, 12 Oct 2018, Igor PDML-StR wrote:


Some of the PDMLer are car enthusiasts, so, I thought some people might
enjoy this interesting car concept.

Someone sent me a photograph of the experimental taxi in the Soviet Union circa 1964:
https://pikabu.ru/story/taksi_sssr_1964_g_5589293

The interesting thing that it could fit a bassinet-stroller (non-collapsible) or a refrigerator (!) - as in: you can bring home the one that you just bought at a store.

It had a [then] futuristic design, and most of its parts were from other contemporary mass-manufactured vehicle(s). ("Moskvich 408", primarily)


One can see some safety concerns, but back then the amount of car traffic was rather small. Even in the US, the car safety started gaining some consideration only in mid-to late 50s, but US DoT and NTSB were not formed until 1966 and 1967, respectively, and the first mandatory federal safety standard for motor vehicles was not established until 1966.


This morning, I was watching a news bite on self-driving taxis from Waymo
(Ex-Google-car) - in AZ. So, I thought that despite the technology,
the idea of a practical taxi, where you can stroll in with your baby,
has not been implemented.

Yes, there are wheel-chair-accessible vans, but those are very specialized services. And there are foldable strollers that can fit in a small trunk, that some PDMLers who live on that small island call "boot".
I am guessing that one of the reasons why the idea of accommodating
strollers in the car is that young families with small babies do not constitute the most financially-striving part of the population. (And, of course, these days, you want to strap your baby in a car seat, which, in the realm of taxis is a big grey zone: taxis do not provide car seats, and in some localities, you are not *required* to use a car seat in a taxi. In both cases - I guess mostly for the same reason: such families are not frequent cab riders.)


For comparison, I know that Uber offers "Uber Car Seat (aka uberFAMILY) option for its uberX vehicles, but AFAIK, that is limited to NYC, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Orlando (and it costs $10 extra).
Even in pedestrian-friendly Boston and SF that is not an option.
Lyft does that only in NYC.
Those facts support my hypothesis that taxi/ride-sharing services do not see much of profit in catering to [young] families with small kids/babies.

Igor

PS. We are way pass the time we used a stroller, - so, I am looking at the problem, so to say, "from the academic point of view".



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