Yellow cab of New York goes high-tech

Yellow cab taxis of New York City are getting the high-tech makeover with the Big Apple's "Taxi of Tomorrow" project.

In an announcement, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that the Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. has beat other bidders of the competition to build the next-generation yellow cab.

Nissan will use its NV200 minivan which will become the new standard model of the city's yellow taxis and will be the newest of 16 models currently in use.

The car manufacturer beat out bids from U.S.-based Ford Motor Co. and Turkey-based Karsan Otomotiv Sanayi  & Ticaret AS.

In a news conference, Bloomberg touted the new yellow cab model. "It's going to be the safest and most convenient cab the city has ever had," he said. "Nissan's submission, we think, was far and away the best among the three finalists."

The competition was announced in December 2009 by the city of New York to supplant the current fleet of their ubiquitous taxis.

The Nissan NV200 yellow cab taxis will hit New York City streets by 2013. It is intended to replace the aging 13,000-strong taxi fleet which will be phased-out by 2018.

The new yellow cab will have a transparent roof, mobile charging outlets, passenger air bags, GPS and high fuel efficiency of 25 miles per gallon. It has been fully crash-tested and will be produced to withstand the rigors of traveling the pothole-riddled streets of New York City.

New York City also plans to further reduce the carbon footprint of vehicles to clean the air in the Big Apple. A fully electric-powered yellow cab is in the pipeline to be used starting 2017.