Reverse geocoding sounds like something you do in rally car to go backwards. It is actually the term for working out the street name from the gps coordinates. This is useful because the coordinates are no good to humans for direction finding. So put simply reverse geocoding is a way of making sense of machine telemetry speak. So who cares - I hear you ask, and what has this to do with taxis? Well let me set the scene for you. It is late on a Friday night, you might have had a few drinks and you really really want to go home now. You could go and stand in the taxi rank, or you could send a text to your favourite taxi firm who comes to get you. You ask the bar tender (or waiter or ....) what the post code of their establishment is, and you text it to you cab company.
Today you might have a person who has a look to see which taxis are close to you and then you might get a call from the firm itself. However, now you can cut out the middleman. Your text goes to a server, it has a look at all the taxis carrying a Blue Tree Ranger and then selects the closest free taxi, and sends them your mobile number along with an approximate location.
The responding taxi driver gets to the location and gives you a call.
Sounds like a lot of work? Not really, all you see is your text and a phone call from your taxi. You might get a confirmation text from the server but that is it. The taxi firm sees the jobs being allocated to the taxis but does not touch them, which reduces costs and possibly fairs.
Ultimately you stay warm, relax, and get your taxi really quickly. You probably never use a different taxi firm again. Good all round. So where is this system? You will see a taxi firm offering it soon so why not try it out!
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